In this episode, Rabbi Schneider unpacks how God revealed Himself to His children through Moses’ account on Mount Sinai.
Visit our website at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of Discovering The Jewish Jesus. I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and today Rabbi Schneider shares a profound lesson in the Bible from Mount Sinai.
If you've ever felt like God is distant, or perhaps even unapproachable, today's message, it's for you. And you know, many of us have grown up picturing God as stern, maybe even harsh, but I want you to see him through a different lens, one that is breathtakingly compassionate and full of grace. Now this isn't an Old Testament versus New Testament thing, because today we're gonna go all the way back to Moses for our lesson.
So let's get started. Here's Rabbi.
Yahweh is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times we don't even think about the Father. Many times people, they just worship Jesus.
Remember, Jesus said, he was the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes, he said, to the Father, but through him. The Father is the one that sent Jesus to die for you. Jesus did everything to fulfill the Father's purpose for his life.
At the end of Yeshua's life in John 17, he said, Father, I've completed the work that you gave me to do. So for Yeshua, it was all about the Father. And many Christians don't understand that our focus needs to be on the Father rather than just putting all our emphasis on Jesus.
And this is in no way bringing down the Lordship of Yeshua, but it's simply exalting the Father to his rightful place because from the Father, from him and through him and to him are all things. And the Father of the Bible, your Father in Yeshua has a name and his name is Yud Hei Vav Hei Yahweh. Now in an earlier broadcast in this series, I talked about some of the things that grieve Yahweh, that hurt Him, and made a point to help us understand that the way we walk and the way we conduct ourselves and the way we relate to Him can hurt Him or bring Him joy.
And we need to understand that God is sensitive and He's gentle. And so we focused on things that we need to be aware of in our own lives that can hurt or grieve Him. Today, what we're going to be focusing on, who He has revealed Himself to be in terms of His primary attributes.
And we're going to go to the Book of Shemot, or Exodus chapter 34, which is what I believe to be the most profound revelation in the Hebrew Bible, or in the Old Testament that we call in Hebrew the Tanakh, of who God the Father is. So before we begin, let's just pray. Father, we pray that You give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know You.
In Yeshua's name. Amen and amen. Now, as we approach Exodus 34, what had been going on is that Moses had been talking to Yahweh.
He had been talking to Father God. And he said to him, Show me Your glory. And the Lord said to Moshe, Listen, no man can see my face and live, but go into the cleft of the rock, call upon my name.
And he said, Moses, I'll pass before you, and you won't see my face, you'll see my back. But as you call upon my name, I will proclaim my name to you. And the Lord was saying to Moses, when I proclaim my name to you, I'm going to fill you with an understanding so that you will know who I am.
And so let's go right now into God's Word. Hear the Word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord abides forever.
Then the Lord, Yahweh. Again, every time you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, in the Old Testament, that's actually Yud-Heh-Vah-Veh. That's Yahweh.
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, Yahweh L. And now he declares and reveals to Moses who he is. Moses is calling upon him, and God comes and meets him.
Moses sees God's back. And as Moses sees the Lord passing in front of him, the Lord speaks into Moses both his name and the revelation of who he is. In other words, Moses didn't just hear the syllables.
He didn't just hear with his ears, Yahweh. When Moses heard the Father breathe into him his name, Moses' heart was filled with light and revelation so that he knew who Yahweh is, not only in name, but in the fullness of substance of who this person is and was. And so let's continue on.
The Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God. And then we begin to see the revelation of who the Father of the Lord, Jesus Christ is and who our Father is. The first thing that we see here is that Yahweh says, I am, get it, compassionate.
So when the Lord reveals himself to Moses, when our Father reveals himself to Moses, the first thing the Father reveals about himself, get this church, is that he is compassionate. Wow, heal us, Father. A lot of times when we think of God, we don't first of all think of him as compassionate.
We think of him as judge. But that's not who he is, because he desires to show compassion. In fact, the Hebrew word here, the original Hebrew in the actual text, when the Lord says, I am Yahweh God, and then he says, compassionate.
The Hebrew word there in the actual scripture is rahum. It's translated compassionate in our English Bible, but the actual Hebrew translates directly into womb. So when the Lord says, I'm compassionate, the root of that is a mother's womb.
So when the Lord looks upon us, He feels about us the way a mom does towards the infant child that's in her womb with unconditional, devoted, tender, motherly love. So think about this. God is a safe place for you and me.
Our father is safe. Jesus, who said, If you've seen me, you've seen the father, demonstrated this. The Apostle John felt so safe with Yeshua that we read at the Passover before Yeshua went to the cross, John leaned his head on Jesus' bosom, just resting there.
How safe did John feel to do that? He knew Yeshua's goodness and kindness and the purpose and intention of compassion towards Him. And it's also interesting to note that when you think about this Hebrew word, rachum, being directly translated in English as womb, you think about the fact that that is actually a feminine word.
Rachum, compassion, is a feminine word. So we think of God as male, and the scriptures refer to Him as He and Him and we should. But God is not just male, He's also female.
Some might think, well, what do you mean God's also female? He is. God is both male and female.
The scripture says God created mankind in His own image, male and female. He created He them. God has both male and female attributes within Himself.
And so the first thing that the Lord does in describing Himself is use a female adjective when He says, Rahum. Think about this. When a child, they're running outside, and all of a sudden they fall, and they scrape their knee, and their knee's all bloody, and their mom and dad are standing 150 yards away on the front lawn in front of the home.
Who does that little boy or little girl run to on the front lawn? Their mother or their father? Well, 90 plus percent of the time, they're gonna run to their mother because they feel so safe in their mother's arms.
And God wants us to know that this is the way that we can feel about him. Loved and safe, nurtured, protected. God reaches out to Moses and says, Moses, this is who I am.
And the same one that reached out to Moses as Rahum, compassionate, my friend, my beloved friend. He is that to you as well. You can feel safe with your father.
He is so warm and tender. And then we think about Yeshua saying even to Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather you together as a hen, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. You can relate to God, beloved ones, not just as a male authority figure, but you can relate to the Lord Yahweh as your friend who nurtures you even as a mother.
He wants us to feel that tenderness and to trust him and to open our hearts to trust him.
You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. And as Christians, discerning God's voice amongst life's conflicting voices is challenging. And that's why Rabbi Schneider has created a free, powerful new talk, A Guide To Hearing God's Voice.
He'll equip you with tools so you can clearly know when God is speaking. Go to myfreegift.com/hearing and get your free copy today.
To become a blessing in someone's life today, get in touch to partner with us. Our mission is to prepare the world for Jesus' return. And your financial gift is channeled directly toward this worthy cause.
Take your first step today by calling 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. Or visit us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com.
Your contribution will equip others for Messiah's return. And now here is Rabbi Schneider with the rest of today's message.
And then the Lord continues on here and he says he's gracious. So the Lord says here, I am Yahweh. I am Yahweh God.
Compassionate, which we just looked at, and gracious. Now, the Hebrew word for gracious is chanun, and it means favor, that God's compassionate and his favor is upon us. And the concept in the original Hebrew here is that even though we don't deserve anything, even though we haven't earned anything, even though we don't have rights to demand, to be blessed or to say to him, you owe me this, he still stoops down and says to us, I love you and my favor, my goodness, my goodwill, my good intention is upon your life.
We have no claim to that. It's just who he is and who he chooses to be to us. It's as if he's stooping down to meet us where we're at.
Even though we feel ashamed in the natural, God's saying, no, I love you. I created you. I'm compassionate towards you and I favor you.
I love you. This is why the Lord sent Jesus to die for us. Get this, why we were yet sinners?
because his favor was towards you and I, when we were even dead in our trespasses and sins. Our Creator will never leave us or forsake us. He's opened his heart towards us to save us in our misery and in our darkness.
That's how good he is. And then the Lord continues on, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger. And some of you grew up in churches like, the main thing you learned about God was if you sin, man, he's going to get you at the baseball bat.
And that's kind of your concept. If who God's been and your heart hasn't opened up and you haven't emotionally blossomed before him, you haven't learned that you can talk to him about everything and that you can let him into your life and that he's going to help you. Even when you're sinning, if you call out to him in truth and in true repentance, he's there for you.
Jesus didn't come into the world to judge the worlds. But to save the world, right? He's not the accuser.
The devil's the accuser. The only way we can become accused is if we reject Jesus. If we reject Jesus, there's an accusation on our life.
But once we come into relationship with God through Jesus, the Bible says there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. So the Lord here reveals himself as one. Listen now, that's slow to anger.
And the Hebrew word here for anger is apayim. And apayim is plural, so it's actually slow to angers. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, and His disposition is slow to angers, plural towards us.
What does that mean? He could get mad so many times with our lifestyle, with what we do, with what we say, but He is patient and long-suffering towards us continually. That's why Jesus said, if your brother sins, forgive him 70 times seven, because that's who God is.
Slow to anger, slow to angers. He's not out to get us. I just feel like the Lord wants to open even my heart more to this.
So Father, we ask you to break in right now. Lord, we love your word. We love your truth.
We say yes, yes, and yes. But Father, would you help us to truly understand and comprehend this revelation that you're giving us right now, that it would truly reach our center and transform us, that we would open up fully in your love. Amen and amen and amen and amen.
He's slow to anger, patient and long suffering towards us. And then we continue on and the Lord describes Himself as being abounding and that Hebrew word for abounding carries with the idea of unlimited, unlimited. Abounding is more than enough.
It never stops. Remember, Yeshua said He came to give life and to give it more abundantly. So the Hebrew here in the text in Exodus 34 for abounding carries with the idea of being unlimited in His loving kindness towards us.
I mean, there's no limit on God. I mean, God is, wow, I can't describe, you know, the fact that from Him is continually coming more and more and more and more and more and more and more and it never ends. He's abounding in loving kindness and truth.
And we think of this word loving kindness. It's interesting that in Scripture, loving kindness and truth are often linked together. So for example, in Psalm 85 10, we read loving kindness and truth have met.
And one translation reads loving kindness and truth kissed each other. And so God is abounding in loving kindness towards us and truth and met. When we say amen, it comes from that word truth and met.
And it has to do with faith as well. Truth. God is abounding in loving kindness and truth towards us.
And truth is so important as God's people to walk in fellowship with the Father. We need to be people of truth. And that's why we should be examining ourselves in the Holy Spirit all the time.
The scripture teaches us to examine our own heart. Jesus became flesh and the scripture says when he became flesh, he was abounding towards us in loving kindness and in truth. But then the text continues on after teaching us even more deeply that Yahweh is forgiving, which we've kind of already said these things, that Yahweh is forgiving towards us.
He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, the text says. The Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness to thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. Yet he will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished.
So we have all these manifestations of goodness towards us of who Yahweh is. But then we come to the end of the text here. And the Lord says after describing how gracious and compassionate and loving and forgiving He is towards us, then Yahweh says, But He will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished.
When do you become guilty finally? When you reject Yeshua. Jesus said, If you wouldn't have understood who I am, the guilt upon your life would not be nearly as great now that you've heard the truth and yet have rejected it.
You see, when people reject God, there's nothing left for God to do, but to judge them for their sin. He said, He will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished. You see, Yeshua, my friends, He is the perfect balance between the mercy of God and the justice of God.
In the mercy of God, He reflects the compassion, the loving kindness, and all of God's goodness and desire to forgive towards us. But God also demands that sin must be punished. He demands justice.
He's a God of mercy and a God of justice. And so how is God able to show his loving kindness to us and yet still be just when we sinned against him? He's able to do that, beloved, because Jesus legally paid the price for our sin when he died on the cross for us.
And for people that have revelation and reject Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for their sin, there's nothing left for Yahweh to do but to judge them, for he will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished. If you've never repented, today is the day you must give yourself fully to your Creator. The scriptures teach us that no good thing does he withhold from those that love him.
Jesus said seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and everything else will be added unto us. As we come to the close of the broadcast today, I want us to ask ourselves, are we adequately loving God with our wealth? I know that many of us have heard messages on this before and as soon as we hear a discussion about finances, we're kind of jaded, it turns us off, but the reality is, the scriptures are clear that God's people are called to honor him with the first fruits of their wealth.
I just want to ask you today, beloved one, if God is blessing you through this ministry, would you honor him with your wealth through this ministry? The scripture tells us when we honor him with our lives, it comes back to us, press down good measure running over into our lives. Let's trust him, let's honor him and let's love him.
Amen. You can respond to Rabbi Schneider today and give a gift of any amount. Just give us a call at 800-777-7835.
And if it's easier for you, then just go to our website, discoveringthejewishjesus.com and you can donate there. And you know, together, we're really making a difference in the lives of people around the world, and we want to express our appreciation for your financial gifts. So when you give, we'll send you a copy of our latest newsletter.
We'll also send you Rabbi's audio message of the month, and it's available as a digital download as well. As we enter into the fall Holy Day season, I want to invite you to explore the deep spiritual significance of the Holy Days. The Feast of Trumpets kicks things off in a couple of weeks at sunset on October 2nd.
And this two-day feast, it lasts until nightfall on October the 4th. And it provides a powerful lesson of God's goodness to believers today. And it reminds us that not only is it a new year, but Jesus is returning soon.
Our website, it offers a wealth of Messianic resources on the Holy Days, like Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets. And you can learn more about them online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can even give a Fall Holy Day offering if you would like.
Just give us a call at 800-777-7835.
Thanks so much for supporting this ministry and for praying for us. That's all the time we have for today. But before we wrap up, I want to turn things back over to Rabbi, as usual.
He's here to send us off with God's sacred and special blessing. Rabbi.
In the Book of Numbers, Chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartations of the Lord's blessings.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance, and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace.
God bless you, and shalom.
Discovering The Jewish Jesus is a production of Shalom Ministries, and I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. Join us tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider explains how to respond with our talents and our gifts. That's Thursday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.
A collection of podcasts from our wonderful programs and hosts that specifically discuss anxiety; how to combat it, where it comes from, what you can do about it, and more. If you have a prayer request, please send us a message or call us at 303.481.1800 and we will agree with you in prayer and petition to the Father.
In this episode, Rabbi Schneider unpacks how God revealed Himself to His children through Moses’ account on Mount Sinai.
Visit our website at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of Discovering The Jewish Jesus. I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and today Rabbi Schneider shares a profound lesson in the Bible from Mount Sinai.
If you've ever felt like God is distant, or perhaps even unapproachable, today's message, it's for you. And you know, many of us have grown up picturing God as stern, maybe even harsh, but I want you to see him through a different lens, one that is breathtakingly compassionate and full of grace. Now this isn't an Old Testament versus New Testament thing, because today we're gonna go all the way back to Moses for our lesson.
So let's get started. Here's Rabbi.
Yahweh is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times we don't even think about the Father. Many times people, they just worship Jesus.
Remember, Jesus said, he was the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes, he said, to the Father, but through him. The Father is the one that sent Jesus to die for you. Jesus did everything to fulfill the Father's purpose for his life.
At the end of Yeshua's life in John 17, he said, Father, I've completed the work that you gave me to do. So for Yeshua, it was all about the Father. And many Christians don't understand that our focus needs to be on the Father rather than just putting all our emphasis on Jesus.
And this is in no way bringing down the Lordship of Yeshua, but it's simply exalting the Father to his rightful place because from the Father, from him and through him and to him are all things. And the Father of the Bible, your Father in Yeshua has a name and his name is Yud Hei Vav Hei Yahweh. Now in an earlier broadcast in this series, I talked about some of the things that grieve Yahweh, that hurt Him, and made a point to help us understand that the way we walk and the way we conduct ourselves and the way we relate to Him can hurt Him or bring Him joy.
And we need to understand that God is sensitive and He's gentle. And so we focused on things that we need to be aware of in our own lives that can hurt or grieve Him. Today, what we're going to be focusing on, who He has revealed Himself to be in terms of His primary attributes.
And we're going to go to the Book of Shemot, or Exodus chapter 34, which is what I believe to be the most profound revelation in the Hebrew Bible, or in the Old Testament that we call in Hebrew the Tanakh, of who God the Father is. So before we begin, let's just pray. Father, we pray that You give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know You.
In Yeshua's name. Amen and amen. Now, as we approach Exodus 34, what had been going on is that Moses had been talking to Yahweh.
He had been talking to Father God. And he said to him, Show me Your glory. And the Lord said to Moshe, Listen, no man can see my face and live, but go into the cleft of the rock, call upon my name.
And he said, Moses, I'll pass before you, and you won't see my face, you'll see my back. But as you call upon my name, I will proclaim my name to you. And the Lord was saying to Moses, when I proclaim my name to you, I'm going to fill you with an understanding so that you will know who I am.
And so let's go right now into God's Word. Hear the Word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord abides forever.
Then the Lord, Yahweh. Again, every time you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, in the Old Testament, that's actually Yud-Heh-Vah-Veh. That's Yahweh.
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, Yahweh L. And now he declares and reveals to Moses who he is. Moses is calling upon him, and God comes and meets him.
Moses sees God's back. And as Moses sees the Lord passing in front of him, the Lord speaks into Moses both his name and the revelation of who he is. In other words, Moses didn't just hear the syllables.
He didn't just hear with his ears, Yahweh. When Moses heard the Father breathe into him his name, Moses' heart was filled with light and revelation so that he knew who Yahweh is, not only in name, but in the fullness of substance of who this person is and was. And so let's continue on.
The Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God. And then we begin to see the revelation of who the Father of the Lord, Jesus Christ is and who our Father is. The first thing that we see here is that Yahweh says, I am, get it, compassionate.
So when the Lord reveals himself to Moses, when our Father reveals himself to Moses, the first thing the Father reveals about himself, get this church, is that he is compassionate. Wow, heal us, Father. A lot of times when we think of God, we don't first of all think of him as compassionate.
We think of him as judge. But that's not who he is, because he desires to show compassion. In fact, the Hebrew word here, the original Hebrew in the actual text, when the Lord says, I am Yahweh God, and then he says, compassionate.
The Hebrew word there in the actual scripture is rahum. It's translated compassionate in our English Bible, but the actual Hebrew translates directly into womb. So when the Lord says, I'm compassionate, the root of that is a mother's womb.
So when the Lord looks upon us, He feels about us the way a mom does towards the infant child that's in her womb with unconditional, devoted, tender, motherly love. So think about this. God is a safe place for you and me.
Our father is safe. Jesus, who said, If you've seen me, you've seen the father, demonstrated this. The Apostle John felt so safe with Yeshua that we read at the Passover before Yeshua went to the cross, John leaned his head on Jesus' bosom, just resting there.
How safe did John feel to do that? He knew Yeshua's goodness and kindness and the purpose and intention of compassion towards Him. And it's also interesting to note that when you think about this Hebrew word, rachum, being directly translated in English as womb, you think about the fact that that is actually a feminine word.
Rachum, compassion, is a feminine word. So we think of God as male, and the scriptures refer to Him as He and Him and we should. But God is not just male, He's also female.
Some might think, well, what do you mean God's also female? He is. God is both male and female.
The scripture says God created mankind in His own image, male and female. He created He them. God has both male and female attributes within Himself.
And so the first thing that the Lord does in describing Himself is use a female adjective when He says, Rahum. Think about this. When a child, they're running outside, and all of a sudden they fall, and they scrape their knee, and their knee's all bloody, and their mom and dad are standing 150 yards away on the front lawn in front of the home.
Who does that little boy or little girl run to on the front lawn? Their mother or their father? Well, 90 plus percent of the time, they're gonna run to their mother because they feel so safe in their mother's arms.
And God wants us to know that this is the way that we can feel about him. Loved and safe, nurtured, protected. God reaches out to Moses and says, Moses, this is who I am.
And the same one that reached out to Moses as Rahum, compassionate, my friend, my beloved friend. He is that to you as well. You can feel safe with your father.
He is so warm and tender. And then we think about Yeshua saying even to Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather you together as a hen, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. You can relate to God, beloved ones, not just as a male authority figure, but you can relate to the Lord Yahweh as your friend who nurtures you even as a mother.
He wants us to feel that tenderness and to trust him and to open our hearts to trust him.
You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. And as Christians, discerning God's voice amongst life's conflicting voices is challenging. And that's why Rabbi Schneider has created a free, powerful new talk, A Guide To Hearing God's Voice.
He'll equip you with tools so you can clearly know when God is speaking. Go to myfreegift.com/hearing and get your free copy today.
To become a blessing in someone's life today, get in touch to partner with us. Our mission is to prepare the world for Jesus' return. And your financial gift is channeled directly toward this worthy cause.
Take your first step today by calling 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. Or visit us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com.
Your contribution will equip others for Messiah's return. And now here is Rabbi Schneider with the rest of today's message.
And then the Lord continues on here and he says he's gracious. So the Lord says here, I am Yahweh. I am Yahweh God.
Compassionate, which we just looked at, and gracious. Now, the Hebrew word for gracious is chanun, and it means favor, that God's compassionate and his favor is upon us. And the concept in the original Hebrew here is that even though we don't deserve anything, even though we haven't earned anything, even though we don't have rights to demand, to be blessed or to say to him, you owe me this, he still stoops down and says to us, I love you and my favor, my goodness, my goodwill, my good intention is upon your life.
We have no claim to that. It's just who he is and who he chooses to be to us. It's as if he's stooping down to meet us where we're at.
Even though we feel ashamed in the natural, God's saying, no, I love you. I created you. I'm compassionate towards you and I favor you.
I love you. This is why the Lord sent Jesus to die for us. Get this, why we were yet sinners?
because his favor was towards you and I, when we were even dead in our trespasses and sins. Our Creator will never leave us or forsake us. He's opened his heart towards us to save us in our misery and in our darkness.
That's how good he is. And then the Lord continues on, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger. And some of you grew up in churches like, the main thing you learned about God was if you sin, man, he's going to get you at the baseball bat.
And that's kind of your concept. If who God's been and your heart hasn't opened up and you haven't emotionally blossomed before him, you haven't learned that you can talk to him about everything and that you can let him into your life and that he's going to help you. Even when you're sinning, if you call out to him in truth and in true repentance, he's there for you.
Jesus didn't come into the world to judge the worlds. But to save the world, right? He's not the accuser.
The devil's the accuser. The only way we can become accused is if we reject Jesus. If we reject Jesus, there's an accusation on our life.
But once we come into relationship with God through Jesus, the Bible says there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. So the Lord here reveals himself as one. Listen now, that's slow to anger.
And the Hebrew word here for anger is apayim. And apayim is plural, so it's actually slow to angers. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, and His disposition is slow to angers, plural towards us.
What does that mean? He could get mad so many times with our lifestyle, with what we do, with what we say, but He is patient and long-suffering towards us continually. That's why Jesus said, if your brother sins, forgive him 70 times seven, because that's who God is.
Slow to anger, slow to angers. He's not out to get us. I just feel like the Lord wants to open even my heart more to this.
So Father, we ask you to break in right now. Lord, we love your word. We love your truth.
We say yes, yes, and yes. But Father, would you help us to truly understand and comprehend this revelation that you're giving us right now, that it would truly reach our center and transform us, that we would open up fully in your love. Amen and amen and amen and amen.
He's slow to anger, patient and long suffering towards us. And then we continue on and the Lord describes Himself as being abounding and that Hebrew word for abounding carries with the idea of unlimited, unlimited. Abounding is more than enough.
It never stops. Remember, Yeshua said He came to give life and to give it more abundantly. So the Hebrew here in the text in Exodus 34 for abounding carries with the idea of being unlimited in His loving kindness towards us.
I mean, there's no limit on God. I mean, God is, wow, I can't describe, you know, the fact that from Him is continually coming more and more and more and more and more and more and more and it never ends. He's abounding in loving kindness and truth.
And we think of this word loving kindness. It's interesting that in Scripture, loving kindness and truth are often linked together. So for example, in Psalm 85 10, we read loving kindness and truth have met.
And one translation reads loving kindness and truth kissed each other. And so God is abounding in loving kindness towards us and truth and met. When we say amen, it comes from that word truth and met.
And it has to do with faith as well. Truth. God is abounding in loving kindness and truth towards us.
And truth is so important as God's people to walk in fellowship with the Father. We need to be people of truth. And that's why we should be examining ourselves in the Holy Spirit all the time.
The scripture teaches us to examine our own heart. Jesus became flesh and the scripture says when he became flesh, he was abounding towards us in loving kindness and in truth. But then the text continues on after teaching us even more deeply that Yahweh is forgiving, which we've kind of already said these things, that Yahweh is forgiving towards us.
He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, the text says. The Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness to thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. Yet he will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished.
So we have all these manifestations of goodness towards us of who Yahweh is. But then we come to the end of the text here. And the Lord says after describing how gracious and compassionate and loving and forgiving He is towards us, then Yahweh says, But He will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished.
When do you become guilty finally? When you reject Yeshua. Jesus said, If you wouldn't have understood who I am, the guilt upon your life would not be nearly as great now that you've heard the truth and yet have rejected it.
You see, when people reject God, there's nothing left for God to do, but to judge them for their sin. He said, He will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished. You see, Yeshua, my friends, He is the perfect balance between the mercy of God and the justice of God.
In the mercy of God, He reflects the compassion, the loving kindness, and all of God's goodness and desire to forgive towards us. But God also demands that sin must be punished. He demands justice.
He's a God of mercy and a God of justice. And so how is God able to show his loving kindness to us and yet still be just when we sinned against him? He's able to do that, beloved, because Jesus legally paid the price for our sin when he died on the cross for us.
And for people that have revelation and reject Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for their sin, there's nothing left for Yahweh to do but to judge them, for he will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished. If you've never repented, today is the day you must give yourself fully to your Creator. The scriptures teach us that no good thing does he withhold from those that love him.
Jesus said seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and everything else will be added unto us. As we come to the close of the broadcast today, I want us to ask ourselves, are we adequately loving God with our wealth? I know that many of us have heard messages on this before and as soon as we hear a discussion about finances, we're kind of jaded, it turns us off, but the reality is, the scriptures are clear that God's people are called to honor him with the first fruits of their wealth.
I just want to ask you today, beloved one, if God is blessing you through this ministry, would you honor him with your wealth through this ministry? The scripture tells us when we honor him with our lives, it comes back to us, press down good measure running over into our lives. Let's trust him, let's honor him and let's love him.
Amen. You can respond to Rabbi Schneider today and give a gift of any amount. Just give us a call at 800-777-7835.
And if it's easier for you, then just go to our website, discoveringthejewishjesus.com and you can donate there. And you know, together, we're really making a difference in the lives of people around the world, and we want to express our appreciation for your financial gifts. So when you give, we'll send you a copy of our latest newsletter.
We'll also send you Rabbi's audio message of the month, and it's available as a digital download as well. As we enter into the fall Holy Day season, I want to invite you to explore the deep spiritual significance of the Holy Days. The Feast of Trumpets kicks things off in a couple of weeks at sunset on October 2nd.
And this two-day feast, it lasts until nightfall on October the 4th. And it provides a powerful lesson of God's goodness to believers today. And it reminds us that not only is it a new year, but Jesus is returning soon.
Our website, it offers a wealth of Messianic resources on the Holy Days, like Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets. And you can learn more about them online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can even give a Fall Holy Day offering if you would like.
Just give us a call at 800-777-7835.
Thanks so much for supporting this ministry and for praying for us. That's all the time we have for today. But before we wrap up, I want to turn things back over to Rabbi, as usual.
He's here to send us off with God's sacred and special blessing. Rabbi.
In the Book of Numbers, Chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartations of the Lord's blessings.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance, and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace.
God bless you, and shalom.
Discovering The Jewish Jesus is a production of Shalom Ministries, and I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. Join us tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider explains how to respond with our talents and our gifts. That's Thursday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.
We are glad you could join us today for the Concepts of Faith broadcast. This program is dedicated to teach you how to put the Word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. And now, here's Charles Capps.
See, Jesus has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, the Apostle Paul said. But we have to learn how to receive the direction of God by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of man, the Human Spirit is the light that God uses to enlighten you. This is the way God's going to give you direction in life.
It may not come as a flash of light or a bolt of lightning. It may just come by impression in your spirit. So we need to learn how to hear the voice of our spirit.
We're here in I Corinthians, the second chapter. We're talking about the human spirit. Now let's read from verse 10 again.
But God, well, now let's read verse 9 and down through here, because I want to get this ingrafted into your thinking. Because you that are in business, the decisions you need to make, they'll come by the Spirit of God if you'll allow yourself to be trained to hear the voice of the Spirit, and allow these things to come forth within you. Now notice in verse 9, he says, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed them to us by his Spirit.
In other words, he said, this is the way God revealed it. He revealed it by his Spirit to the human spirit. For the Spirit, that is the human spirit, searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man, which is in him. In other words, the Spirit of man knows all about him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now, I made a statement, and I want to show you that it's qualified right here. That in verse 10, where it says, for the Spirit searcheth all things, ye the deep things of God, it does not mean Holy Spirit. It means the human spirit.
Now, this verse 11 will qualify it, where it says, even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. In other words, it says, the Spirit of God knows all about God. Then that proves that the Holy Spirit would not have to search the deep things of God.
He already knows them. Can you see that? Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world.
I'm glad I didn't receive the Spirit of the world, aren't you? But we have received the Spirit which is of God. Now, what's the Apostle Paul referring to here?
He's referring again to the human spirit. We have not received the human spirit from the world. Now, he's also, by law of double reference, he's talking about the spirit, the renewed spirit within us, the born again human spirit.
Now, let me just stop here long enough to show you something or bring to remember some things that will help you. In Genesis, the first chapter, it says, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth. God created man in his own image and in his own likeness.
When I say man, I don't talk about mankind. God is a spirit. They that worship him, Jesus said, they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
So God is a spirit. Now, when he created man in his image and in his likeness, what he did, he created man in exact duplication of God's kind. Now, let me qualify that because sometimes people say, oh, well, you're getting too far out.
You're saying we're God's, no, no. We're created in the likeness of God in his image and his likeness. The word likeness in the original Hebrew meant an exact duplication of kind.
Now, what kind is God? God is a spirit. And man was created in the image and likeness of God.
Now, you can see it if you open your Bibles there to Genesis, the second chapter, verse seven. It says, The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground. Now, that is not the creation of man.
He formed man out of something that already existed. That's not a creation. You see, he had already created the earth, so he took the earth, which he's already created, and he forms man's body.
Now, that's not the creation. He made his body out of the dust of the ground. And then it says, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, or the amplifier says, he breathed into his nostrils the spirit of life.
Now, if God breathed spirit life into Adam, what kind of spirit was it? The spirit of God, wasn't it? Now, there's the creation of man right there.
That is the creation of man. You see, the real man is the human spirit. Now, this is what Paul is referring to here, when he says, now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.
God breathed his own spirit into man, and man became an exact duplication of God's kind. It was the same spirit that God was that was in man. The human spirit was a part of God that he breathed into him.
Now, the word spirit is breath, or wind, air. It was the very breath and life of God that he breathed into Adam. And Adam was an exact duplication of God's kind.
He was capable of operating in faith like God did. He was capable of subduing the earth and having dominion over it. Every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.
And you know, that's good news, just know you have dominion over creeps, isn't it? Glory be to God. Everything that creepeth.
Now, God gave Adam dominion over the earth. He was capable of subduing the earth or God wouldn't have told him to do it if he hadn't have been capable of doing it. Now, he was going to do it the same way God did it, is by speaking words of faith.
But now, back to 1 Corinthians here, verse 12, Paul says, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Now, he tells you why he created you in his image and in his likeness, so you would know the things that were given to us of God. Now, get this, this is important, and it's all here in these verses we've read, but the spirit which is of God, we have the spirit which is of God, why?
That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. This is the only way we'll know the things that are of God, is by the spirit. Can you see that?
He breathed into man a spirit. It was the spirit of God, so that God's spirit could bear witness with the human spirit. You see, spirits communicate with spirits.
Spirits don't communicate with bodies. They communicate with spirits. So God's spirit then could bear witness with man's spirit and do exactly what the Apostle Paul said.
Eye hasn't seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man by the natural realm, by studying books and all of this. But he said God has revealed it by his spirit. Isn't it good that we have insight by the spirit of God?
God reveals things. Now, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. That just simply means it's the light that God is gonna use to enlighten your pathway.
It's the light that God is gonna use to cause it to be a lamp unto your feet or light unto your feet and a light upon your path. When you don't know what to do, when you don't know which way to turn, you don't know what decision to make, don't go around saying, Dear God, I don't know what to do. I'll always make the wrong decision.
Every time I get under pressure, I'll always make the wrong decision. You're planting seeds. You know what you're doing?
You're binding that wisdom of God that can come through the human spirit. You know what Jesus said? See, we talked about it a while ago.
Jesus said, I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them now. And that's talking to the disciples. Now, the reason they couldn't bear them because he could speak it, but they couldn't understand it.
Now, you know why they couldn't understand it? Because they were yet carnal. They had not been born again.
See, it is the rebirth of the human spirit that causes the human spirit to come alive to the things the power charge has put back in the human spirit. And the human spirit begins to receive communication from God's spirit. So, Jesus said, I've got a lot of things I'd like to tell you, but you can't bury them now.
And that was very obvious they couldn't, because he'd been telling them all the time, he said, I've got to go to the cross and die and be abused and spit on and crucified. And they was over there arguing about who's going to be the greatest when you set up your kingdom here in Jerusalem. One of them wanted to sit on his right hand, the other on his left.
And he kept telling them he's going to have to die and be gone. And finally, Peter rebuked him over it. And Jesus finally turned around and said, get thee behind me, Satan.
Now here's a man, Peter, that was sincere, all right, but you see, he was walking in the carnal nature. And Jesus was giving him great truths, but he couldn't receive it. You know why?
Because his spirit didn't have the Holy Spirit in it, the teacher and the guide. And he said, I got a lot of things to tell you, but he said, you can't receive them now. How be it when the spirit of truth has come, he will teach you all things and guide you into all truths.
Now he said, I can get them to you a lot easier when I'm gone and reveal them into your spirit that I can stand here and tell you now and you'll go away and never know what I said. And he did many times, told them exactly what was gonna happen and they didn't believe a word of it. Went in one ear and out the other.
Well, God wants us to be sensitive to the spirit of God and he is telling us how to receive of the spirit of God. I have good news for you. God reveals things to the human spirit.
And when you learn and train the human spirit to hear the voice of the Spirit of God, then God will direct you and you will no longer have to walk in darkness in making decisions. Isn't that good news? Praise God.
Thank you so much for joining us for the Concepts of Faith broadcast today. Now, all of this week we have a book and CD offer, number 7517. The book is entitled The Light of Life in the Spirit of Man.
It's a 59-page paperback. And the single CD, it's entitled How God Will Light Your Candle. It's for $15 plus $4 postage and handling.
You get the book and the CD, a total of $19. You know, it's the entrance of God's Word that brings light to you. And Proverbs 20, 27 says the Spirit of Man is the candle of the Lord, or we could say it today is the light bulb that God uses to enlighten you.
So you receive revelation in your spirit, and it enlightens you. Now, remember the Word said, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word was made flash and dwelled among us. Well, Jesus was the light of the world.
He brought life and light to the world, and redeemed mankind. And David said, the entrance of the Word bringeth light. Then in Psalms 18 says, For thou will light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
In other words, the scripture says, if you seek, you'll find. If you knock, it will be open unto you. And the Word of God is where the light is.
You remember, Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, their spirit, their life. In other words, God's Word is spirit life. And words are spirit.
And I'll tell you, the Word of God will get in your spirit. And once you get it in your spirit, it will affect things. It first affects you.
It will enlighten you. It will give you revelation and insight. And the anointing of God is upon His Word.
That's Book and CD, offer number 7517, for a total price of $19. We have a toll-free order line, 1-877-396-9400, 1-877-396-9400. Until tomorrow, this is Charles Capps reminding you that the enemy is defeated, God is exalted, and Jesus is coming soon.
To order the product offered today, call 1-877-396-9400, or write Charles Capps, PO. Box 69, England, Arkansas, 72046. A complete list of CDs, books and DVDs are available online at charlescapps.com.
Through the website, you can listen to this radio program again and subscribe to our podcast. This broadcast is sponsored by Charles Capps Ministries and our listeners in this area.
Our sovereign Lord often uses our deepest disappointments to prepare us for serving others.
welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, September twenty-fifth. If you are trying to escape your problems, today's podcast helps you change your perspective and begin to look for God's purpose in them. The series on the ways of God continues.
Well, this is the series on the ways of God. And we've been talking about. His ways, what motivates.
Him. Why does. He do what.
He does? Why does. He act the way.
He acts? Why does. He respond the way.
He responds? What motivates. Him?
And so, in this message today, something all of us have to deal with in our life. All of us have to deal with suffering of some kind, whether it's emotional or whether it's physical, mental or whatever it might be. And so, when we think about the ways of God, today the title of this message is simply this, the ways of God, He uses our suffering.
It's one of. His ways. And what I want us to understand is I want us to understand why God allows us to suffer the length of time.
He does oftentimes, or whether it's a short period of time. What is. He up to?
What's He thinking? So, I certainly hope you'll be wise enough to write these down. There are quite a number of them.
The reasons God allows us to suffer. And the first one I want to mention is this, and that is to manifest Christ's life and character in us. That is, to reveal.
His character within us. So, think about what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who has received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and one in whom and through whom Jesus Christ is living.
His life. So that the greatest testimony to a lost person is a believer who's living a godly life. And so that you and I are to, listen, are to be living examples by character, conversation, and conduct, of the person of Jesus Christ.
That's what he's maturing us. He's taken out that stuff that doesn't belong there. He's adding what belongs there in order that you and I would be a living example so that somebody who meets you will meet the Son of God who lives in you.
So he allows suffering. Suffering is that sanding and sifting and pruning. And listen, one thing that gets our attention is pain.
And God knows, watch this, He makes no mistake. He makes no mistake when. He allows pain in our life.
He never allows too much. He knows exactly when, where, how, and what method, and by means of bringing pain into our life. But He always has a purpose for it.
And what does. He want? Listen, since.
He's not here, He has you and me to live. His life through us, each and every one of us. You receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
Jesus Christ is living within you. His desire is what? It's that pruning, sifting, sanding, dealing with all the things within us that make us look like anything other than.
Him. And you mark this down, that purity and power go together. There would be absolutely no power in your life as a believer if the heart is impure.
They just don't match. It's like oil and water. You put them in a pan, you can see the oil all comes together here and water's over here.
Purity and power, that's why every man of God who stands in the pulpit must major on a pure heart, an obedient heart. Or it's just simple words that are floating out there somewhere. A pure heart is, listen, is the will of God, the desire of God, and an essential way we think.
And so, He sends suffering into our life to purify us. That's the will and purpose of God. And people who desire to hold on to and say, Well, you know, you can't tell me what to do and what to watch.
No, I can. I can tell you this, that the whole time you are living an impure life, I can tell you what's going on inside of you. There's a civil war goes on when the heart's impure.
And so, He's going to send enough suffering to do what? Enough suffering to show us, to reveal to us, what's there that needs to go. People wonder, well, why do they suffer?
Just stop and ask a question, is my heart pure? And you see, think about this. You may not be sick, but there's no contentment.
And when you're not contented in your life, there's something missing, something awesome. Here's what contentment says. Contentment says, I am delighted in my relationship to God.
I'm delighted in my circumstance. I may not like it, but somehow, I know that God is up to something good. You are never free until your heart's pure.
Never free till your will is surrendered. And so, what God wants, because. He loves us, He wants the best for us.
And so, one of the reasons. He sends suffering, pure Father heart. Another reason is this.
He says in Hebrews also, in that twelfth chapter, that we could share in the holiness of Christ. Now, what does that mean? Simply this, God's goal for us is to be like Jesus.
God's goal for us is to have a pure heart. That is to share in the holiness of Jesus. How could I share in.
His holiness when I have sinned against God? And so, we sort of try to explain it away like that. But listen to what.
He says. He says, speaking of the way we were disciplined, they disciplined us for a short time, which seemed best to them. But He that is God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share.
His holiness. What does that mean? And you see, when you talk about holy, people say, there's only one person who's holy and that's God.
So, what we do, we explain away and rationalize our lack of holiness. Jesus Christ is living in the life of every believer. Jesus Christ is the holy Son of God, the holiness of Jesus Christ within us.
Listen, it's there. It can either be muffled, suppressed, ignored, denied, or that holiness can express itself. And so, His desire is that you and I would share in the holiness of Christ, that we would be godly men and women.
And you see, to talk about being godly is so foreign to the society in which you and I live. Because this is a sinful, wicked, vile, lustful, greedy society we live in. And Christians can be just as greedy as the lost people.
When it comes to money, anything goes. Godly people make a difference. And it is the holiness, listen, it is the holiness of the Son of God that.
He wants to express through us. Then what happens? Listen, when your life is holy, your conversation, your conduct, and your character is holy, you, listen, you don't have to say anything.
You will make an impact in people's lives. Things will be different. And you can go through difficulty, hardship, and pain.
And when you recognize that God is doing what? He is expressing something within you so that the holiness of your heart will be like headlamps on the automobile, shining into the darkness and shining through the darkness. And other people can see the light, not to brag on you, but they just see in you something that deep down inside, they wish that they had.
Well, when I think about all the ways that. He expresses and the reasons. He expresses and what.
He's got in mind, He has some awesome things in mind. And one of those is simply this. He wants to teach us to give thanks in everything.
Now, that's difficult to do. He says in First Thessalonians, that fifth chapter, everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And as we said before, sometimes pain can be very intense.
But He says, this is the will of God that you are not able to be grateful. So, when you see that, you back off and you say, Okay, God, and notice what this passage says. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for Christ, in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Now, in everything, in everything give thanks. Watch this. Sometimes I have to say, Thank you, God, I don't like it.
I wish it were not in me, I wish this were not happening to me. I don't like anything about this, God. But since I know that you're sovereign, and since I know that you love me absolutely, totally and completely, I want to thank you anyway.
There are times when you have to say, Thank you, God, when you don't feel it. You say, Well, now, that's being a mockery. No, it's not.
When you say, Thank you, God, you're breaking through that barrier that's trying to separate you from a loving God. And the confession of your mouth is an awesome, powerful thing. God, I don't like it, but I want to thank you anyway.
I'm going to thank you with my lips until I can thank you with my heart. And what happens is, all of a sudden, you have this awesome sense of gratitude and joy in your heart. You can smile and laugh and say, God, thank you for putting up with me.
Thank you, Lord, that you just ignored all that stuff I said. Thank you that you forgot all those complaints and moaning and groaning and asking you why. Thank you, thank you, thank you, God, that you loved me too much to take the pain away quite yet.
I can be grateful for what's happening because I know what the results will be. And that is, he's looking out after us. And so, he teaches us gratitude by allowing suffering in our life.
Then, of course, he teaches real character, perseverance. Listen, perseverance, steadfastness. And I love what he says in this Roman passage here because there's so many people who are quitters.
They're quitters. And I think about people who get saved and they go to church and they think, when I get saved, everything's going to change. Well, everything will change, but does that mean there's no suffering and heartache and pain?
No. Sometimes things get worse when you become a Christian. Well, I don't want any of that.
Well, my friend, think about this. A lot of times things get worse. But you know what God's up to?
He's letting the suffering begin early to do what? To begin. His awesome work in your life.
And so, when we think about how God works, listen to what. He says in. His fifth chapter of Romans.
He says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now watch this, and not only this, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's given to us.
Now think about this, here's what perseverance, perseverance says, I know it's hard, but I'm going to keep going. I know they're rejecting me, but I'm not going to stop. I know that I feel inadequate, but I'm going to keep on.
Perseverance doesn't give up. We live in a society where people are so willing to give up and quit because they feel like a failure because they failed at something. You remember Thomas Edison?
How many times he tried to invent a light bulb? Over a thousand times. And when people ask him about it, he said, I know a thousand ways it doesn't work.
Perseverance, so I want to ask you this, is there perseverance in your life? Do you persevere in your own private Bible study? Do you persevere to read the Word of God every day?
Do you persevere in your praying? Do you persevere in your giving? Do you persevere when things are tougher?
You give up and complain and moan and groan to God about it. Perseverance says, I'm not quitting. I'm not giving up no matter what.
There's something about perseverance. Perseverance builds character into your life. You're not a quitter.
You don't give up. So you miss that promotion, you're quitting and just pull up your stakes and leave, or you're going to keep going. You're going to keep working at it.
You see, when a person's living a God-led life, God will show you what the goal is. He'll show you what the real objective is. He will enable you in ways that you've never imagined.
But your heart's got to be pure, your motivation's got to be pure, and what happens? He builds perseverance. He builds character.
Perseverance is an awesome quality that God always recognizes, and I think. He will always honor that in some fashion. It depends on what's going on in your life and what God's up to.
Then, of course, He sends suffering into our life to enable us to share the sufferings of Christ. Now, what in the world does that mean? So, I'm going to go back to Philippians for a moment.
You say, what do you mean sharing in the sufferings of Christ? Listen to what Paul said in this third chapter. He said that he counted, more valuable than anything else, his knowledge of Christ.
And he said he wanted to be found in him, having a righteousness not of his own, but for Christ. And then he says in verse ten, he says, I want to know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. Paul said, listen, he said, I want to know something about suffering because the Lord Jesus Christ gave.
Himself for me. He suffered those last three years of his life continuously. He got crucified and all the rest.
Paul says, I want to share in his sufferings. So, one of the reasons, watch this now, that God allows suffering in our life so that we'll have something, be able to feel at least something of how he suffered. Now, you and I will never be able to suffer like he suffered.
But if you'll notice people who seem to be in good health and everything sort of seems to be going their way and they never suffer about anything, it's very difficult for them to be sensitive to people who are suffering. It's difficult for them to really be sensitive and caring. They sort of want to avoid people who are suffering because it makes them feel uncomfortable.
It is the will of God that you and I suffer. There's no question about that. And let me just say this, there's a false gospel that floats around today.
The false gospel says that this is the will of God for everybody. Wealth, health, happiness, and prosperity. If you have faith, you'll have it all.
If you're sick and you're suffering, it's because you don't have enough faith. Do you realize what you'd miss if you were healthy all the time? If you had everything in the world, you'd know nothing about perseverance, you'd know nothing about character, you'd know nothing about spiritual maturity, you'd know nothing about the ways of God, you'd know nothing about the heart and the soul of Almighty God Himself.
What a false gospel that is, totally false. Well, the Lord God allows and sends suffering into our life for a number of reasons. And what you and I have to ask is, I may not always understand why.
I may not always understand what. He's up to, because sometimes it is very perplexing, but I know that. He has something wonderful in mind.
One of. His primary reasons for sending it is this, and that is to prevent pride in our life. And you remember what Paul said, I won't turn to that passage in 2 Corinthians.
He said, God allowed that thorn in this side. He said, listen to this. He prayed three times, probably three times of long periods of prayer, and God said, no.
He said, my grace is sufficient for you. Now, Paul had believed what people sometimes believe today about God will heal anything. It was the will of God.
And Paul said, it was the will of God to allow me to suffer for the simple reason. He has shown me so much truth that in order to keep me from being prideful, He just, shall we say, stuck it in my side. And no matter what I did, He left it there.
And nobody knows what it was, and it may not have been anything in. His side, but that was the way. He described it.
He said, in order to prevent me from becoming prideful. Now, one of the reasons I believe that's in the Scriptures is because of all the sins that you and I commit, the worst is pride. Because here's what it says, every other sin we commit says I have a need, whether it's a moral sin or whatever it might be.
But what does pride say? I don't need it. I can handle it.
Number one, number first, which God hates. So what does. He sends suffering.
And when somebody tells you. He does not, there's verse after verse after verse. For example, one of the reasons.
He sends suffering is to broaden the ministry. Now, let me just give you a personal illustration, and I'll say it very carefully. I went through a very difficult experience in my life that I would have thought and most would have thought would have absolutely destroyed my witness for Christ.
But instead, it flung the doors open because God knew my heart, not something that I could help, not something I could change, not something I could do anything about. But people who would not listen or watch before began to say to me, Now you know how I feel. Now you know what I think.
Now you know what it feels to be lonely. Now you know what it feels to be rejected. Now you know what it feels.
What could have destroyed did not. It flung the doors open. And what could have stopped the gospel with the Apostle Paul throwing him in prison, just opened the doors of opportunity for him to minister to the people he would never have reached?
He'd have never, listen, he'd have never met that bunch of Praetorian guards without suffering. So remember this, there'll be people who will come to you when you're suffering, who may not pay you any attention beforehand. God will put a concern in their heart for you, and they'll come and God will begin to work in your life and in their life, broadens the ministry.
And it broadens it in so many ways that you and I could never really fathom all of it. But these are at least a few ways. And then, let me just mention one other, and this is it.
It reveals, that is, suffering reveals the evil nature of mankind and the righteous judgment of God when. His judgment comes down upon them. And this is what he's referring to in First Thessalonians, that second chapter, because there is going to be judgment for the wicked, and there will be judgment, and there will be discipline in the life of God's people when we do not do what.
He asks us to do. And so, he speaks of that, of God's judgment. Now, notice what he says.
He's talking about the righteous judgment of God, that is, its right. And so, there are lots of reasons God allows suffering, people who live a sinful, wicked life. So, the question here is this now, all right?
In light of all that, how am I to respond? When suffering comes into our life, the right response is this, Lord, what are. You saying to me?
Does that mean. You should, You say, well now, suppose I'm hurting so bad, I just can't, I just don't care. I just want to get out of this.
Let me say this, ask. Him, Father, what is. Your purpose for this?
Help me to understand. Give me patience to bear this until I hear what. You're saying, understand.
Your purpose, and. You accomplish. Your will in my life.
Thank you for listening to He Uses Our Suffering. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
[Music] Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barber Carman. This is Jimmy Lakey and I'm delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at box 370-367 Denver, Colorado, 802-37 or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a word-powered daily reading Bible guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll-free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let's join Barbara in the studio. Welcome to Call to Freedom. I'm so glad you joined me today. I'm so excited about serving the Lord Jesus and I know you are too. You want to know him more deeply and that's so important in this life on this earth where everything's changing. It seems like it's just like a revolving door changing all the time. And for some of us who are getting older, we don't like change. No, don't change. But we're enjoying that transition and I'm enjoying it and I'm acclimating to that kind of lifestyle. So bring it on, Father God. Bring it on. Oh, friend, you are blessed because you belong to God. He chose you, shaped you, and prepared you to make a difference in this world. It's like our scripture for this week. Isaiah 43 verse 1, "The Lord your Creator, He formed you. Do not fear for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. You belong to God." Hallelujah. And that's my prayer for you today and always. Not so much that we see those great miracles, although I've had power partners that one couple, his brother is free of cancer. Praise God. And those things are wonderful and important. But the main thing I pray for you is safety every day. Safety and protection. Because in this world we do not know when we get in our car or whatever we're doing, how we can be gone in the next minute. And of course when we're gone and we belong to Jesus Christ, we know where we're going. But it's always such a sorrow and grief for the loved ones that are left. So I'm so grateful to God that He's protecting you. He's keeping you safe. And He's keeping you healthy in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord. You are blessed to dispense for in Him you live and move and have your being. I'm so grateful that call to freedom comes to you live Monday through Thursday and on Friday we always have an encore show which I'm so grateful for. I'm grateful though. We have all those CDs. They used to be cassettes. But now there's CDs that help you to learn how to really serve Jesus and be more like Him. I hope that you're praying for Israel, Israel is the apple of God's eye. And He will protect her. Yes, she went through great turmoil and destruction because of her disobedience. She went into exile in Babylon. She was scattered all over the world. But then Jesus, Jesus came and that freedom that He gives to all of us, He's also giving to Israel, His people. And you can read about how Israel is redeemed by God in Romans 9. I'm so grateful for those books that Paul wrote about that Israel. All Israel will be saved. We know that God brought the Jewish people to their land. And He promised to protect her. And I'm reading in that Isaiah right now. He has protected her and He will. And as a country, she is a marvelous, marvelous example of a constant, well conservative, maybe constant democracy in the Middle East. We can have that friend. We can really see that. In the Passion, Isaiah 43 verse 1 says, "Listen Jacob." And He's speaking to Israel primarily here. But you can take that. You can take what He's saying here. What Isaiah is saying. Listen Jacob to the one who created you. Israel to the one who shaped who you are. Do not fear. Don't be afraid. And as we're getting older, sometimes we get this fear that we're going to be alone or something's going to happen. We can't motivate like we used to. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. God is watching over you and He's taking you by the hand. It says here, "I, your Kinsman Redeemer will rescue you." Yes, Isaiah 43, 1. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through, pass through the deep stormy sea, you can count on me to be there with you. When you pass through, that word pass through, remember, you're not going to let you stay there, pass through the raging rivers. You will not drown when you walk through. This is from the Passion. When you walk through persecution like firey flames, you will not be burned. The flames will not harm you for I am your Savior, Yahweh, your mighty God, the Holy One of Israel. When you trust in Him, when you put everything that you are and you have in His hands, He will keep you safe and sure. I have been through some really rough times, some really impossible times. Oh, and I thought we were going to crash and burn, especially when we were traveling across the United States in the 70s and early 80s. I'll tell you what. He protected us every mile that we traveled. Praise God. I praise God for you and I praise God for the ones who went before us, who gave us wonderful, wonderful promises. My confession for today by Rick Renner, talk about somebody who's given us promises. I declare I have the sword of the Spirit of God working in my life. This spiritual weapon works when I confess the word and stand on the word. I have the exact word I need in every situation. A specific, quickened word from the Scriptures placed in my heart by Holy Spirit. Because this rama from God is in my heart, I have a real sword power to use against the enemy. I declare this by faith in Jesus' name. And for a man who's had a church now for 30 years in Moscow, Russia, yes, right across from the Kremlin. Yes, God has kept him and Denise so safe. Praise the Lord. And the sword of the Spirit is an important offensive tactic and we read that in Ephesians 6. Now, Ephesians 6.10 says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." Not in your own power. His might and then it goes on to describe the armor of God. Now, we can all picture a knight in shining armor, of course. And you've listened to sermons about the armor of God for years. And yet you haven't used God's armor. You haven't put it on a detail of who you are and where you're going. You ask, "Well, how do you use God's armor?" You apply these important elements of safety and assurance against the enemies, rockets and against the bullets and everything that's coming at you. You have a shield. And you must wear all the armor that God provides. You can go down that list in Ephesians 6 and see what you need to apply. And most of us, that first thing is salvation, that helmet of salvation. You have been born again. Jesus is going to keep you safe. You must wear all the armor that God provides so you're protected as you confront the slanderer. Now, that's a liar. He comes against you with all these innuendos of how you are so nothing. It's never going to work out for you. You're going to be a failure. Oh, don't listen to him. Don't listen to him. For you are destined for all things and will rise in victory after you have conquered. Now, we're going to go through this little list and it's in the Passion translation. I know I'm using a lot of the Passion, a lot of the new living translation and the message. But they're so important and they're kind of in the contemporary vernacular. So I'm grateful that these people have translated the Bible in these translations that we easily can read. And especially the younger people here. It says in Ephesians 6 put on truth as a belt to strengthen you to stand in triumph. Do you know why human enemies try to get a bullet in their enemies midsection? Especially I love Westerns. I don't know why I didn't have we didn't have horses on our farm. We didn't when I was a little girl. But when we moved north of Greeley, we just had hogs and chickens and that was about it. So I didn't really know about the Westerns but I really like the old Westerns and the horses and all the action. And when they hit somebody with a bullet, they aimed at their midsection. Do you know why they did? Because that injury would determine a sure death. It hit the vital organs. If you didn't hit the heart, you're going to hit the stomach, you're going to hit the liver, you're going to hit the intestines, you're going to hit the kidneys. So that was the place where they usually fired. So to have the truth around your organs in your heart is a deterrent to the lies and falsehoods of the enemy aimed against you. It really is. And put on holiness is the protective armor that covers your heart. Oh, every day when I ask God to help me to rest through the night, to help my organs and my all my limbs and everything to be at peace. My heart is going all night long. Yeah, it's pumping. It never rests. If it rests, you'd be with Jesus. So my heart, thank you, Father God, for pumping that blood and that water through my system by heart, by the heart. It's so good. And he goes on in the passion to say, stand on your feet alert, then you'll always be ready to share the blessings of peace. Isaiah 52 verse 7 tells us that the feet of the messenger coming over the mountain to announce good news is a beautiful sight. The messenger comes to refresh us with wonderful news announcing salvation to Zion and saying, your mighty God reigns. Our God reigns, friend, our God reigns. In every battle, take faith as your wrap around shield for it is able to extinguish the blazing arrows and bullets coming at you from the evil one. Embrace the power of salvation's full deliverance like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies and take the mighty razor sharp spirit sword of the spoken word of God. Now this is in the passion and this is, let's see, we're going through 17 Ephesians 6 17 and take the mighty razor sharp spirit sword of the spoken word of God. He's not telling you just to read the word and keep a logos mentality. No, he's saying you take those scriptures on protection, take those scriptures on God taking care of you. You take those scriptures, write them down if you've got to, if you can't memorize them, write them down. You will soon memorize them. And that's why I have the power pack. That power pack has wonderful fundamental scriptures that you can use every day for hopelessness, for illness, for hate, for unforgiveness. It helps you. And if you'd like a power pack, I'll send you a power pack. Now if you'd like the binder, I'm going to, you know what, I'm going to give you a special here. I've had to raise the prices, but right now for the regular in the cassette case, it's $6.50 and for the binder on the in the acrylic binder for $10. So I can send you the one in the cassette case for nothing when you call me after the program. And if you'd like the binder, it's only $10 right now. So the spoken word you've got to learn to speak speak speak like Kimberly was talking last week when Matthew began speaking to his finger his bloody infected finger what happened. God healed it. He spoke. He spoke. Pray passionately in the spirit as you constantly intercede with every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all his believers. Now it's like this precious girl who came and helped me. I was lugging this big bucket of the October Express to the post office. And I guess she saw me get out the car says, oh, this little old lady needs some help. And so as I was getting around the car to walk up the sidewalk and at our post office, we've got to go up 10 to 12 steps. And she says, can I take that for you? Here she is a precious girl probably in her early 20s, a petite and she had the cute hat on her head. And she took that bucket and she just went ahead of me. It was so precious. And I asked her her name and she said, Haley. So if you remember the name Haley today, pray for how Haley that he would just bless her socks off. He will open the windows of heaven for her. Thank you, Father for Haley. Bless her. And if she doesn't know you, Lord God, oh, she had such a great smile. If she doesn't know you, Lord Jesus. Oh, I thank you for salvation for Haley today and in your precious name. So we are now a part of a community that prays for one another and being a part of a spiritual community is like being in an ice cream shop. You don't know which one to choose. You don't know which flavor to choose. Oh, I love, I love going to that high point creamery. The Kimberly and I go to oh my goodness. It is so good and it's all natural, all good for you. As I read first Peter two five through seven, I realized that what I was quoting was in the plural. It's plural. You're not just a chosen one, you are a chosen generation of people, a royal priesthood. You are a community of priests. You are not alone in this kingdom realm, a holy nation of peculiar people as living stones. You are continually being assembled into a sanctuary for God. You are one part of a whole bunch of parts making a wonderful temple of God. Maybe for some of you, you haven't thought of yourself as a valuable part that makes up a congregation, but that's what you are in God's sight. You are serving a Savior who's the living water. Are you thirsty? He's the living water. The doorway of salvation. Are you lost? He's the door. He's the door of opportunity for you. The bread of life when you're hungry. The light of the world when you're in darkness. He is the one who sustains you and blesses you in every way as you let him. Jesus tells us in the New Testament that he is the door. The door he opens loses. And the door it loses into revelation knowledge, treasures, favor, opportunity. Now Jesus says he is the door in Revelation 3. I want to go there. It's so good. Revelation 3 verse 8 through 22. And we're getting closer and closer to that time that John was writing about. And the... Our Lord Jesus describes his own power as mediator in Revelation 3 verse 7. He has the key of David. Now in last week, I told you about the key of David in Isaiah 22, the Valley of Vision. And he was talking about Eliacum taking the authority from Shemna. And that authority was to open doors and to close doors. We got that same authority friend. You can close doors and in the name of Jesus, you can open other doors. Some people leave the doors open for 40 years. And then it's God. It won't close anymore. You're remembering the past too much. That's a real temptation for older people. Jesus' power in the kingdom of heaven is that key of David. And in ordering all the affairs of that kingdom is absolute. Rulers should be fathers to those under their government. And the honor men bring into their families by their piety and usefulness is more to be valued than what they derive from names and titles. You can have all the titles in the world. You can have all the names in the highfalute and honor in the world. But if you're not a humble father of God and you're a spiritual covering over your family, it's nothing. The glory of this world gives a man no real worth or excellence. It is but hung upon him and it will soon drop from him. Now in Revelation 3, Jesus is speaking here and he says, "I know all the things you do. I've opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. Look, I will force those who belong to Satan, synagogue. Yep, there are those in these last days. They belong to Satan. Those liars who say they are Jews but are not to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love. Because you have obeyed my command to persevere. I will protect you from the great time of testing. That's the tribulation that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take away your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in the temple of my God. And they will never have to leave. And I will write on them the name of my God and they will be citizens in the city of my God. Who's he talking about? The new Jerusalem, praise the Lord. The Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them the new name. A new name that no one knows now but it will be upon our foreheads, my friend. We will recognize everybody as brothers and sisters. Oh, what a joyous reunion. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. I want to tell you today that Jesus is the answer for any question, any issue, any problem you have. Just to speak the name of Jesus over fear and all anxiety to every soul held captive by depression. To speak the name of Jesus because His name is power. His name is healing. His name is life. Praise God. Here's charity, Gail. [Music] I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind because I know there is peace within your dress. I speak Jesus. I just want to speak the name of Jesus to every dark addiction starts to break. To clearing there is hope and there is freedom. I speak Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. But life is fire. I just want to speak the name of Jesus over fear and all anxiety to every soul held captive by depression. I speak Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. Yes it is. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. But life is fire. Your name is power. And we declare it is. Your name is life. Bring every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. But life is fire. Shall Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets, Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. And Jesus for my family, I speak the Holy Name. Jesus. Oh, shall Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets, Jesus in darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the Holy Name. Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. But life is fire. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is healing. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. But life is fire. I just want to speak the name of Jesus. We just want to speak the name of Jesus friend. When you know him, you want to speak the name of Jesus because he is power. He is healing. He is life. Praise the Lord. Jesus says here in Revelation 3, I hope you can take some time to read the third chapter of Revelation. Jesus says, you say, I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me, capital M, me, gold that has been refined by fire, then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me. Oh, that's when we come to know him as Savior. We become that righteousness. We've got a robe of righteousness, my friend. I correct and discipline. Everyone I love. Remember that. He corrects and disciplines as we need it. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. Look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne just as I was victorious and sat with my father on his throne. So where are you going to sit? You're sitting with Jesus at the throne. Ephesians 2 tells us that also anyone with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he's saying to the churches. So remember that church at Leodicea that he was just talking about that church in these last days, we're living in the Leodicean church. And he says, I know the things you do, you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth because you're so complacent. You're so comfortable with where you are and you're so indifferent with the things that are going on. Well, this last minute I'm going to ask you to vote. I'm going to do that. I am going to encourage you and challenge you to register to vote because we know that 40 million, 40 million Christians, 40 million Christians have not registered to vote. Come on. Come on. I would pray. Oh, this would be so wonderful. I would pray that everything and everyone who's listening to me, I, instead of everything everyone who's listening to me, you have registered to vote. And you're going to vote according to the spirit of God. No pro-abortion here, friend. No, no killing of babies. Pray for the pro-life and vote that way. Oh, God bless you. I know you, I'm sounding political, but this is the destiny of America that we are up against in the future of America and future generations, your children and grandchildren. Remember that. God bless you and keep you and take joy. [Music] Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom. Box 370-367 Denver, Colorado-80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. Call to Freedom is a listener supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom Ministry. Power partner support Call to Freedom with Prayer and Monthly Financial Support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom's website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara's daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your phrase reports in heart prize by mailing them to Call to Freedom. Box 370-367 Denver, Colorado-80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmac@freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy. [Music] [Music]
Sermon Overview
Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Our thought lives are the root of many of our problems in this world gone wild. It is crucial that we have mastery over our minds and control over our thought lives.
First, we must be sure of our salvation.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
The devil wants us to stay in the dark and blind our minds to the light of the Gospel.
There’s a difference between the mind and the brain; the devil does not come after our intelligence, rather he wants to distort our minds. We become what we think about. (See Proverbs 23:7.)
The carnal mind, which is at war with God, must be converted. There is no second step until we are sure we are saved.
Second, we must pursue single-minded, heart-felt devotion to God.
A converted mind can be corrupted; we can lose so much ground in the battle for our thought lives if we do not take action and give everything over to God.
Third, we must root out the strongholds in our thought lives.
A corrupt mind must be conquered. We must conquer compulsiveness, obsessions, fixations, and fears. We cannot let bitterness and resentment, uncontrollable lusts, phobias, criticisms, or distrust have a hold on us.
This warfare is not carnal, so our weapons aren’t either. Education, psychology, nor positive thinking can help us take down these strongholds. Our fighting chance is the blood of Christ, the Word of God, and the authority in the name of Jesus.
Finally, we must surrender our conquered minds back to the Lord.
We cannot be neutral; we cannot merely dethrone the enemy—Christ must be enthroned in our thought lives.
Adrian Rogers says, “No man can think two things at one time. If you’re thinking what is right, you cannot be thinking what is wrong. You can choose your thoughts like you can choose your friends.”
Our great hope is that the conquered mind can be controlled by bringing every thought to Jesus Christ.
Apply it to your life
Bring every thought to obedience, and let the Lord Jesus Christ screen your thought life today.
What's the difference between our mind and our brain? Listen to Adrian Rogers.
You need to understand that there is a difference between the mind and the brain. The brain is what the mind thinks with. When you get saved, you don't get a new brain, you get a new mind.
And the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. He doesn't, the devil doesn't hurt your intelligence. Why?
Because the Bible says as a man thinketh, so is he.
Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the profound messages and practical lessons of Pastor Adrian Rogers. Our thought life is the root of many of our problems in today's world. It's crucial that each of us has control over our thought life.
The devil wants us to stay in the dark and blind our minds to the light of the gospel. He does not come after our intelligence. Rather, he wants to distort our mind because he knows we become what we think about.
If you have your Bible, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 as Adrian Rogers shares how to have mastery over your mind.
Would you take God's Word and open it if you would please to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And in a moment we are going to begin reading in verse 3. I'm going to be talking to you today about how to control your thought life, how to control your thought life.
That is, how to have mastery over your mind. And if there was ever a significant message, this would be it. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 3.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, now notice that's a little G and it refers to Satan, the God of this world, that is the God of this age, hath blinded the minds. Underscore that phrase. Hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Now this deals with the problem of the mind and a blinded mind. You see, the devil is controlling the thought life of so many. But thank God, he doesn't have to.
I mean, there is a way to gain control of your mind, and I want to speak to you today in a very significant message on how to control your thought life. How to control your thought life. Now, I want to give you four principles.
And the very first factor that I want to give you is what I call the salvation factor. The salvation factor. You must get saved.
You see, the devil doesn't want you to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look in verse four. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
You know what the devil wants to do to you right now? The devil right now wants to pull the veil of darkness over your mind. He doesn't want you to hear what I'm about to say.
He doesn't want a shaft of gospel sunlight to penetrate the dark, murky recesses of your soul. The devil wants you to stay in the dark. He doesn't want God to turn the light on in your soul, so he wants to blind your mind.
Now let me say something very significant here. You need to understand there's a difference between your mind and your brain. I didn't used to know that.
I never had really even thought about it. But it's a fundamental thought. You need to understand that there's a difference between the mind and the brain.
The brain is what the mind thinks with. The relationship of mind and brain would be very similar to the relationship of a pianist and a piano. You see, the piano is the brain.
The pianist is the mind that uses the brain. For example, who plays that piano makes a lot of difference as to what comes out of it. You want me to tell you the most dangerous thing in the world?
The most dangerous thing in the world is a man with a bad mind and a good brain. A bad mind and a good brain. He is a clever devil.
Now, it is the mind that the Bible speaks of that I'm talking about, not the gray matter. When you get saved, you don't get a new brain. You get a new mind.
And the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that, believe not, he doesn't... The devil doesn't hurt your intelligence. What he does is distort your mind.
He blinds your mind. Why? Because the Bible says, as a man thinketh, so is he.
It is your mind that controls you. Legendary Bear Bryant, the great coach at Alabama, had his team on the field and they were playing in arch rival. There were only two minutes left in the game.
Alabama was ahead by five points. Two minutes left. Alabama has the ball, and they're on the opponent's 20-yard line.
And they call a play, and the number one quarterback for Alabama is hurt on that play. Bear Bryant pulls him out, and he takes the second string quarterback, and he gives him these instructions. He says to him, Now listen, I want you to go in there and run three more plays.
Regardless, don't throw the ball. Do not put the ball in the air. Just try to keep from losing yardage if we don't score.
Okay, yes sir coach. The boy went in, and on the second down, no yardage at all. On the third down, they gained a yard.
On the fourth down, the clock winding down, this rookie quarterback takes the ball, and he turns to hand it off to this man coming through, and there's a bobble, and the man doesn't catch the ball, and the quarterback still has the ball in his hands. And so he begins to move out, and to try to get away from the defense, and he looks over there in the end zone, and there's one of his players. This boy knew he could throw the ball that far, he knew he could put it right in there, and so he just put the ball right over there to this boy with his waiting hands.
But what he did not know was the all-American safety on that other side had been watching the entire thing. And when the ball was put in the air, he zipped over there, plucked the ball out of the air, and started down the field with only one person between him and a touchdown, and it was that boy who had thrown that ball. And he ran with this quarterback behind him the entire length of the field, and finally on the two-yard line, the rookie quarterback caught up with him and brought him down as the whistle blew and the game ended, and Bama had won by five points.
After the game, Bear Bryant went over and was shaking hands with the other coach, and the other coach said, well, he said, I just don't understand it. He said, according to our scouting reports, your second quarterback is slow, and our man is the fastest man on the field. He said, how did he catch him?
Bear Bryant in his southern drawl said, well, he said, you have to understand. He said, your boy was running for six points. He said, my boy was running for his life.
What's the difference? It's the mind, not the legs, the mind. As a man thinks, so is he.
Now, the very first principle is the salvation principle. Now, there's a second factor, not only the salvation factor, but there is this sincerity factor. Now, just fast forward, if you will, to 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, and read with me in verse 2.
And I want you to get the picture. The Apostle Paul thinks of himself as a father. He thinks of the church as the bride of Christ.
He thinks of Christ as the bridegroom. And so what Paul is saying is, as a father, I am bringing you and I am presenting you to Jesus Christ. Now, catch the figure of speech.
Paul says, For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Now, the word chaste here means pure. I want to present you as a pure virgin to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But now notice in verse 3, this fear that Paul has, this apprehension that Paul has, this danger that Paul sees. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, look at the word simplicity.
The word simplicity means single-minded devotion. A heartfelt devotion. That is, I am to love Joyce, my wife, with single-mindedness, with sincerity.
There's to be no other girlfriend, no other thoughts. She is to be number one in my life, and I can tell you frankly and gladly, she is. She's been number one in my life.
But now, listen, that's what the word simplicity means. It actually means single-minded, sincere devotion to Jesus. Because, you see, a divided mind means a perverted mind, and then it means a broken relationship.
And so I am to keep my relationship to Christ sincere. That is, I am to be single-minded. Why?
Because the carnal mind must be converted. But, oh, my dear friend, we need to understand that a converted mind may be corrupted. Just because you're saved, that doesn't mean that you're not going to have to battle about your thought life.
Paul here is talking to Christians. He said, I am presenting you as a pure virgin to Christ, but he said, I'm afraid that your mind might be corrupted as the serpent seduced Eve with his subtlety. So, your mind might be corrupted from the sincerity, the single mindedness that's in Christ.
The salvation factor, the sincerity factor, and then there's the stronghold factor. Now, notice, go back to chapter 10, if you will, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and look in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, that is, we're in these human bodies, we do not war after the flesh.
Now, he tells us there's a war, but it's not a war of the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The word carnal means fleshly.
A carnivorous animal is what? A flesh-eating animal. And so, carnis is the Latin word that we get our English word carnal from.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that is, they're not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, underscore the word stronghold. Now, let me just illustrate what some of these strongholds might be.
It is a system of thought that brings you as a believer into bondage. The devil uses that system of thought to establish in your mind imaginations. Now, the King James calls it there, imaginations.
The word imagination is the word that we get our word logic from in the Greek, or logistics from. That is, the devil is warring a logistical war against God, and he's very clever. He has seduced a believer.
He has suddenly come into the mind of a believer. He has implanted in the mind of that believer a stronghold, a fortress. He gets inside that fortress, and with logistics, he now wars at God.
Logically, with philosophies and thoughts, he wars against the idea of God. He always wants to war at God, and he wants to use your mind as a battlefield to war against God because the devil knows if he can control your mind, he can control you because as a man thinketh, so is he. Now, we're talking here and now about Christians.
What are some of these strongholds? I don't have time to just talk about them, so let me just list them and see if we're talking about you. Compulsiveness.
Do you find yourself just compulsed to do certain things? Acting compulsively and you say, I don't know why I do that, just do it. Obsessions.
Are you just obsessed with certain things that you think about all of the time? Fixations, fears, bitterness and resentment. Uncontrollable lust.
I'm speaking to some men who would be embarrassed if their fellow Christians, their wives, their children knew the whole that lust and pornography have in their lives. Phobias and criticisms, distrust, the inability to trust anybody or anything. And it's not just a passing thing that comes through your mind.
There is a fortress. Satan, who has seduced you, has taken control. He's moved in, and he is logistically warring against God with these imaginations, and he's there.
A carnal mind must be converted. A converted mind can be corrupted, and a corrupted mind must be conquered. Now listen to what he says.
He says that we can take back the fortress. This is what he is saying in verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
What are the weapons of our warfare? The Word of God, prayer, repentance, the blood of Christ, the authority, the Holy Spirit, so many of them. I don't even have time to talk about the weapons of our warfare, but let me tell you what they are not.
They are not carnal, and you listen to me. The weapons of our warfare are not education. You'll never control your mind by education.
I'm not against education, but you educate a man without Christ, you make a clever devil. The weapons of our warfare are not psychiatry and psychology. They're good as far as they go, but they do not dispossess Satan and take him out of his stronghold.
It cannot be done with psychiatry and psychology. They have their place, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Carnal people can use psychiatry and psychology.
Carnal people can use education. I'll tell you the weapon of our warfare is not positive thinking. Many Christians get hooked on positive thinking.
Did you know that many Christians don't know the difference between positive thinking and faith? Did you know that? They think that faith and positive thinking are the same thing.
They're 10 billion light years away from each other. Not positive thinking. Positive thinking is fine, but it doesn't always work.
Little boy came home and he said, Dad, I think I'm going to fail my math test. He said, Son, don't say that. Think positively.
He said, I'm positive I'm going to fail it. Now, positive thinking is not going to release you from the stronghold of Satan. They all have their place.
They're all fine, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, what you need to understand is this, that when you use your spiritual weapons, the blood of Christ, the word of God, the authority that's in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can take back that conquered ground that you gave to Satan and conquer it yourself and dispossess Satan.
But the only way you're going to do it is with the authority of Jesus Christ and the word of God. I was reading about a woman in St. Louis who was living with a man who was not her husband. She had allowed this man to come into the apartment and he was living there in the apartment with her.
She got into conviction. She knew the thing she was doing is wrong. She wanted to break up the relationship and she told this man that he had to move out.
Do you know what he said? He said, I'm not moving out. He said, you invited me in here?
He said, we've been living like this and legally you can't put me out. She didn't know whether legally she could or not. She got a lawyer and the lawyer said, legally you can make him move.
And she got a judgment from the court, a court order that said he had to go. And she read it to him and said, now you're going to move out or I'm going to call the law on you. And grudgingly he moved out and she changed the key.
My dear friend, I want to tell you that when you get right with God and you bring the weapons of our warfare against Satan, legally you can move him out. That's the only way you're going to move him out, is legally with the authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I give you authority over all the power of the enemy and what you can say to Satan, if you have that stronghold that is there, you can say to Satan, Satan, I'm not asking you.
I'm not pleading with you. I'm not reasoning with you. I am telling you in the name of Jesus Christ and the authority of the word of God, my heart belongs to Jesus Christ.
I've confessed those sins. I've repudiated that stronghold. I put it under the blood.
God has forgiven me. You have no right, no authority. You are trespassing on my father's property.
And in the name of Jesus, be gone. You're gonna have to take back the stronghold. I mean the weapons of our warfare.
There's a battle. And you're gonna have to go in there with the word of God and the authority of God and take back that stronghold that you've let Satan have. There is a war, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
The salvation factor, the carnal man must be converted. The carnal mind must be converted. The sincerity factor, the converted mind can be corrupted.
The stronghold factor, a corrupted mind must be conquered. And then, my dear friend, the surrender factor. Listen, it's not just enough that you take back your mind.
If that's all you do, before long, you're going to be back in the same difficulty. Now, look here, if you will, again, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5. Casting down imaginations.
That's what we're to do. Say, devil out. And every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God.
Now, watch this, it doesn't end there. But notice what else it says. It says, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
That's the surrender factor. You cannot be neutral. Not only must Satan be dethroned, Christ must be enthroned in the thought life.
You bring that mind back to Jesus Christ and you enthrone Jesus Christ. You cannot be neutral in your thought life. No man can think 2 things at one time.
And if you're thinking what is right, you cannot be thinking what is wrong. You can choose your thoughts like you can choose your friends. Did you know that?
You can refuse to let things into your mind. You go to the airport and you walk through that little door, you know, that's got that sensor that tells whether you have any metal, you know, whether you're packing a gap, and you walk through there and if you've got too many keys in your pocket or too much change in your pocket, that sensor says... and you back out and she hands that little dish and you take everything out of your pocket and put it in that dish and then you go through.
You go through. And it checks to see whether you're clean or not. Now, my dear friend, you ought to have something like that on your mind that just screens out the thoughts.
It keeps you from thinking these things. You can choose your thoughts like you choose your friends. Bring every thought to obedience.
Let the Lord Jesus Christ screen your thought life. Now, you may think that what I'm saying is just sanctified psychology, but that's where you're wrong, mister. It's the Word of God.
It's the Word of God.
The carnal mind must be converted, but that's not enough. You must beware lest the converted mind be corrupted. But if the converted mind is corrupted, the corrupted mind can be conquered, and the conquered mind can be controlled by bringing every thought to Jesus Christ.
You can choose your thoughts just like you choose your friends, and you can say with the Apostle Paul, we have the mind of Christ, and as a man thinketh, so is he. So if you think like Christ, what are you going to be like? Jesus.
Isn't that wonderful? Praise God.
Well, what a great reminder today that we are to be the people who think like Christ and become more like him every day. You know, at Love Worth Finding, we love hearing how the ministry and the messages of Pastor Rogers have inspired you in your faith journey. If you can, go to our website and submit your own testimony or read others who share their stories.
We often select stories to be shared throughout our Love Worth Finding community and will always protect your privacy if that's what you desire. We can't wait to hear your story at lwf.org/mylwfstory.
Now if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD. Mention the title, How to Have Mastery Over Your Mind. This message is also part of the insightful series, Change Your Thought Life.
For that complete 6-message collection, call 877-LOVE-GOD. Or you can order online. Or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee, 38183.
You can also purchase our new Bible studies, much like this message, in our online store. Thank you for studying in God's Word with us today. Remember, our great hope is that the conquered mind can be controlled by bringing every thought to Jesus Christ.
Let the Lord Jesus screen your thought life today. And tune in next time for more from Adrian Rogers, right here on Love Worth Finding.
In a recent survey we conducted, we received this wonderful word of encouragement from a listener. I have listened to Pastor Rogers for so many years now. I feel he's part of my family.
I love his practical application of biblical truths and his faithful adherence to God's word. You know at Love Worth Finding, our mission continues to be to draw people to Jesus and help believers go deeper in their faith. And to thank you for your gift right now, we'd love to send you a copy of the book, A Final Charge to the Church.
The contents of this book were delivered by Pastor Rogers in 2005, but the messages are as relevant today as ever. As the church, we're called to seek gospel-centered lives, and this final charge from Pastor Rogers emphasizes that. Request a copy of the book when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVE-GOD or give online at lwf.org/radio.
Are you serious about your relationship with God? In this episode, Rabbi Schneider lists the things God hates and informs believers what the first step is to stay on track with God.
Visit our website at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com
Welcome to Discovering The Jewish Jesus. I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and today Rabbi Schneider is going to help us discover God's covenant names.
Have you ever wondered what it truly means to know God? That's a deep question. And to understand God's hearts and his desires, what grieves him?
Well, today, Rabbi Schneider, he's gonna take us on a journey into the very essence of God's sacred names. And by diving into the depths of God's names, we'll discover a lot about God's character. We'll see how much he longs to have a relationship with us, a personal relationship.
It's gonna be an eye-opening message. So let's get started with today's message from our study called To Know Him by Name. Here's Rabbi Schneider.
Baruch Hashem, blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm excited about this series. This is one of those series that brings me particular joy.
And we've been digging in to the mystery of the revelation of God's sacred, personal covenant name, Yud Hei Vav Hei, which most Semitic scholars believe is pronounced a breathy, Yuh Weh. And I'm launching straight ahead right now as we're continuing our dialogue on this subject. It truly is a series, beloved.
I'm just excited to bring it to God's people because I think there's so much here and many of God's beloved children have not been exposed to this teaching. And it's so sacred and so important. I know it's gonna be a blessing for so many people's lives.
People that love truth, love truth. And this is fundamental truth as we explore who God wants to be to us through the revelation of his personal names and title in Scripture. We can't see God, he's invisible, but we can know him through his self-revelation.
And his self-revelation comes to us in the form of his revealed names. As I've been saying, Yahweh is the Lord's personal covenant name. And I left off on the last episode, we're talking about how Yahweh is a person, and we can grieve him and hurt him.
And I want to continue down this trail today by taking a deep look in Scripture according to Yahweh himself, about the things that humankind can do that hurt him. I shared with you that in Ezekiel 6,9, the Lord speaking to Israel said, you have hurt me. And when I read that, it just pierced my heart.
It's not just about us, it's about him. Now here we go. We're looking at Proverbs 6,16-19.
There are six things which the Lord Yahweh hates. Yes, seven which are abomination to him. So what's the point?
Yahweh said, you've grieved me in Genesis chapter six. The Lord said, you hurt me in Ezekiel chapter six. And now we're saying, what are the things that you and I need to guard our hearts against so that we don't find ourselves amongst those that hurt and grieve Yahweh and his spirit?
Don't you want to know that? Don't you want to know what hurts and grieves God so you can guard your life from it? And know that as you do, put into place those measures to keep your relationship with Yahweh connected.
It means that oftentimes you'll be separated from other people because the world is going one way and God's children are going another way. So realize there is a price to pay and just get ready to pay that cost. And when you do pay a cost to love him and be in fidelity to him, even if that means you're rejected by the world, you should rejoice because you're sharing in the sufferings of Jesus, who was rejected and crucified by the world.
Jesus said, if the world rejects them, neither are going to reject you. And we've been chosen not only to reign with Yeshua, but to suffer with him. So recognize that to be separate from the world because of your fidelity to Yahweh means that you're going to be excluded by the world.
Jesus said, if you are of the world, the world would love you. If you act like the world, if you dress like the world, if you talk like the world, if you entertain yourself with the world, Jesus said, the world's going to love you because the world loves its own. If you're of the world, Jesus said, the world would love you.
But because I chose you on the world, said Yeshua, therefore the world hates you. So I just want you to get ready. If you're serious about your relationship with God, you've got to count the cost and recognize that there's a price to pay and make a decision to happily bear the cross, the cross of the world's reproach because of your love for Jesus and know that there's a great reward coming.
So here we go. What hurts Yahweh? There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven, which are an abomination to him.
And now we're going to list them. We're going to go through each one. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.
Seven things Yahweh hates. Let's take a look at them. Number one, haughty eyes.
What does this mean? To carry yourself with a puffed up heart, to look down upon other people, to judge other people. Just pride is basically what it is.
But if you think about it, how many social contexts have you been in where either you had a haughty spirit or somebody that you were with had a haughty spirit and the person that you were with had a haughty spirit and you just kind of like rolled with it all. But God hates it because you and I, we are what we are by the grace of God. Whatever we have that's good, we only have for one reason, because Yahweh gave it to us.
Are you smart? You don't look down upon people that are maybe as intelligent or as gifted to you in some type of intellectual context because you know what? You're only who you are because the Lord made you that way.
We are humble. We humble ourselves. Everyone's our brothers and sisters.
So Yahweh hates when his people carry themselves with a haughty spirit. Then the Lord continues, a lying tongue. Six, yea, seven things which the Lord hates.
The next one he lists is a lying tongue. Are you aware of things that are coming out of your mouth that aren't really authentic or true, but yet you say them because you want to fit in? I'm not putting anybody down, but I want you to examine yourself, just as I am continually examining myself.
Are you even laughing at jokes that people say that you don't even think are funny or even are an insult to God because you want to be accepted? You know, when you laugh at a lie, you've become, in a sense, part of a lie. That's a lying spirit.
And you know what? This is a problem that many of us have to be careful about. Exaggeration, exaggerating a circumstance, exaggerating telling about a circumstance.
Exaggeration is lying. And if we say something that's not true just because we want to appease people around us or because we're afraid of the consequences of telling the truth, you know what? We're living in the spiritual dynamic of a lie.
We must be truthful. The Bible says that the church is the pillar of truth in the earth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
I want you to be aware, and even as I apply this to my own life, I want you to be aware of the words that come out of your mouth. Are they authentic, and are they true? Are they truly true?
And so, as you're in a situation, you don't know, well, how can I tell the truth? Because if I tell the truth, it's going to create this conflict. If you're committed to telling the truth, I believe from experience, God will give you the wisdom to tell the truth in such a way that it doesn't cause destruction, but brings the whole situation forward deeper into the light.
And then the Lord continues here, hands that shed innocent blood. Now, what does this mean? It means taking advantage of innocent people for our own financial gain.
We need to be careful how we treat other people, especially people that are too vulnerable or too naïve to know how to protect themselves. How do you treat people that might be challenged in some way, whether it's physically or mentally or emotionally? This is so important.
I mean, God is for the underdog. God is for the challenged and the disenfranchised. We need to be so careful with how we treat people.
And I believe this concept of shedding innocent blood conveys the idea of making sure that we treat those in society that are very vulnerable with love and respect and sensitivity. Do you do that? Do you do that?
You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. We want you to know there are so many ways that you can watch and listen to Rabbi's programs. Online, you'll find us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com.
You can find resources like our television broadcast schedule, Rabbi's messages on your podcasting platform, YouTube content, devotionals, and much more. You can even follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Check out all these resources online today.
At the core of everything we do at Discovering The Jewish Jesus is our commitment to declare the whole council of God's Word from start to finish. In fact, Rabbi's unique way of connecting the Old and the New Testaments has helped people all over the world to understand the Bible with fresh eyes. To join us in this work of God, give a donation online today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com, or call 800-777-7835.
And now here is Rabbi Schneider.
Continuing on, God hates a heart that devises wicked plans. I mean, think of the media today. Think of our major media outlets, our news channels.
Always thinking about how to spin something out there to create controversy. All it does is it brings society from one degree of evil into another degree of evil. Looking for ways to scheme and to create chaos to bring forth that which is the spectacular.
Thinking of an evil plan to bring forth the spectacular into the news cycle, just so they can get more reviews and the destruction that's caused to society. God is going to crush all this and destroy it. He hates it, hates it, hates it.
And we can't have anything to do with it. Paul said, stay away from conversations that really are just wicked, conversations that lead to nothing profitable. But he said instead, speak forth that which is edifying.
And God hates feet that rapidly run to evil. What does it mean to rapidly run to evil? Well, I just think of gossip.
Do you have to resist gossiping about somebody else? Many of you do. You know what?
Resist it. A lot of times, I want you to hear this, a lot of times we try to escape our own issues, the pain in our own life, our own emotional disturbance. We try to escape ourselves, listen now, by gossiping about other people.
And this leads us to rapidly run to evil, to do things that are evil because we're trying to escape the lack of peace that we have in our own life. Yahweh hates this. He sees right through it.
The Word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, and it divides the soul from the spirit. God knows exactly what's going on in your life and why you do the things you do. And you and I need to get a hold of ourself and develop enough self-awareness that we can understand why we do what we do and begin to separate our motives so we can abide and stay in Him.
And this has to do with the next thing that Yahweh hates, being a false witness who utters lies. It's so horrendous, and it's all over the place. It's all over the place.
I mean, if you think about this concept of feet running to evil and being a false witness and spreading lies, and the next one, spreading strife amongst others, just look at social media today. It blows me away sometimes. I'll put something out there on social media with the best of intent, and sometimes something that I think is just really gorgeous because it's the beauty of God.
I mean, I've released segments before on the beauty of God, and yet there's people out there, and they criticize it. It's like, what? What?
I remember one YouTube live that I did on the beauty of God, and I was wearing a hat that I had made up of all the colors of the rainbow because I was talking about an encounter I had with Jesus in which he manifested himself to me in living color. And I've had this hat for 10 years because of my earliest experience with Jesus in which he manifested himself to me in association with color. And so I was wearing this hat, talking about the beauty of God, and talking about how I had just had this encounter with the Lord, and he manifested his beauty to me through electric living color.
And one of the comments was right away, if you've had that hat for 10 years, why didn't you wear it on television before? And it's like, what? We're talking about the beauty of God.
And yet, to the pure, all things are pure. But to the filed person, everything is defiled, and the lens that they see from is defiled. The point is, beloved, this is what we see on social media today.
So much hate, so much hate and division. And it's just like, this is from the power of darkness, and we need to see it for what it is and separate ourselves from it. Not get involved in conversation about it, not have anything to do with it.
Push it away and keep your eyes on Yahweh like a racehorse that has blinders, and you have to resist, because evil is alluring. Listen, isn't there something in us we want to gossip? In our heart, there's something in us that want to say something about somebody which we know isn't right to say.
We want to contribute our two cents to the conversation and speak something negative about a situation or a person. We have to recognize that we need to close the door to that and not say it. Again, the last thing that Yahweh hates is a false witness who speaks or utters lies and someone that spreads strife amongst others.
We have to guard our tongue. James said, if you could control your tongue, you'll control the destiny of your life. One of the first and most important things that we should do as believers, beloved, to get on track with Yahweh, to get power released into our life, is to control our tongue.
We can be sent into the Spirit and have a sense of, I should or shouldn't say it. That's what we need to do. So I want to continue on now, moving from the negative aspect of what hurts Yahweh, what grieves Yahweh, what Yahweh hates.
I want to move forward now into who He is and focus on His glory, focus on His beauty. Now, how do we know, moving on from where we've been, who this great, glorious, beautiful God of ours is? Who is Yahweh?
He's a person and He's sensitive, but who is He? Well, my beloved friend, I believe one of the greatest portions of Scripture is found in the book of Shemot, or Exodus, chapter number 33. In Exodus 33, what we have here is that Moses is crying out to this one that he had met at the burning bush, Yahweh, to show him his glory.
Moses is saying to Yahweh, show me your glory. Yahweh commissioned Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt into the promised land and into the desert to worship him. But Moses is insecure about this call.
So he keeps on asking Yahweh to help him to know that he's with them. Moses says, show me your favor. Help me to know your favors with me.
And Yahweh says, my favor is with you. And finally, the conversation between Moses and Yahweh comes to the climax when Moses cries out, show me your glory. And Yahweh says to Moses, no man can see my face and live Moses.
But I want you to go into the cleft of the rock and call upon my name. Call the name of Yahweh. And I'm gonna pass by in front of you.
And you won't be able to see my face, but you'll see my back. And I'm gonna proclaim my name to you. So, Moses goes in the cleft of the rock, and he calls upon the name Yahweh.
And Yahweh passes by and proclaims to Moses his name. And Moses is filled with the revelation knowledge of who this person, who this Yahweh is. When a rocket takes off from planet Earth, it has to break through the gravity that surrounds the world in order to become weightless.
In the same way, there are certain things, beloved, that you and I must do to get free in Yeshua. Jesus said, he that tries to save his life will lose it, but he that loses his life for my sake shall save it. In order to lose our life, in order to live lives of sacrifice, in order to be givers, we have to break through the resistance of being takers and being selfish.
I want to encourage you, beloved ones, to practice this principle with your finances. It may seem like I'm just a preacher asking for money, but the fact is, what I'm sharing with you is true. I would simply say this, all of us need to be givers, and all of us need to honor the Lord with our finances.
If this ministry's been a blessing to you, I want to encourage you, make a sacrificial gift unto the Lord through Discovering The Jewish Jesus today. God bless you. Thank you in advance, and shalom.
You can support Discovering The Jewish Jesus with a gift of any amount by going online right now and donating at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also give a gift of any amount by calling us at 800-777-7835. And you can send your financial donation in the mail to DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.pobox777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228.
And as our way of saying thanks for your generosity, we want to send you Rabbi Schneider's Message of the Month. It's available as a digital download, and we'll make sure that you receive our latest newsletter in the mail as well. And before we wrap up today, I want to share that Rabbi has a free gift for you.
And if you haven't claimed it yet, we don't want you to miss out on getting your copy of A Guide to Hearing God's Voice. It's an MP3 audio download, and it's a thought-provoking message that's aimed at helping you nurture your relationship with God. It's really good, and it'll help you recognize the Holy Spirit's leading.
It'll help you sift through other thoughts that come from yourself, thoughts that might come from the enemy, or maybe that other people are even sharing with you, to recognize when it is that God's actually speaking to you. And you can get your free copy right now. Just go online to myfreegift.com/hearing.
Once again, the web address is myfreegift.com/hearing.
And you know, together, we truly can deepen our understanding of Scripture and share it with the whole world. Your support, no matter what amount, it helps us do that. So make sure to give today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or text your donation to us by typing the keyword rabbi to the phone number 45777.
That's all the time we have for today right now. And as always, we close each program with a special blessing. Here's Rabbi.
In the Old Testament Book of Numbers, we find a blessing God speaks over his children through Moses and Aaron. It carries the idea of favor and expression. Open your heart to the Spirit and the Word today and receive Father's goodness into your life with confidence.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance, and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace.
God bless you, and shalom.
Let our prayer team pray for you. We lift up every individual request before the Lord. And then, as God answers your prayer request, or if God has touched your life through Discovering the Jewish Jesus,Welcome to Discovering The Jewish Jesus. I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and today Rabbi Schneider is going to help us discover God's covenant names.
Have you ever wondered what it truly means to know God? That's a deep question. And to understand God's hearts and his desires, what grieves him?
Well, today, Rabbi Schneider, he's gonna take us on a journey into the very essence of God's sacred names. And by diving into the depths of God's names, we'll discover a lot about God's character. We'll see how much he longs to have a relationship with us, a personal relationship.
It's gonna be an eye-opening message. So let's get started with today's message from our study called To Know Him by Name. Here's Rabbi Schneider.
Baruch Hashem, blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm excited about this series. This is one of those series that brings me particular joy.
And we've been digging in to the mystery of the revelation of God's sacred, personal covenant name, Yud Hei Vav Hei, which most Semitic scholars believe is pronounced a breathy, Yuh Weh. And I'm launching straight ahead right now as we're continuing our dialogue on this subject. It truly is a series, beloved.
I'm just excited to bring it to God's people because I think there's so much here and many of God's beloved children have not been exposed to this teaching. And it's so sacred and so important. I know it's gonna be a blessing for so many people's lives.
People that love truth, love truth. And this is fundamental truth as we explore who God wants to be to us through the revelation of his personal names and title in Scripture. We can't see God, he's invisible, but we can know him through his self-revelation.
And his self-revelation comes to us in the form of his revealed names. As I've been saying, Yahweh is the Lord's personal covenant name. And I left off on the last episode, we're talking about how Yahweh is a person, and we can grieve him and hurt him.
And I want to continue down this trail today by taking a deep look in Scripture according to Yahweh himself, about the things that humankind can do that hurt him. I shared with you that in Ezekiel 6,9, the Lord speaking to Israel said, you have hurt me. And when I read that, it just pierced my heart.
It's not just about us, it's about him. Now here we go. We're looking at Proverbs 6,16-19.
There are six things which the Lord Yahweh hates. Yes, seven which are abomination to him. So what's the point?
Yahweh said, you've grieved me in Genesis chapter six. The Lord said, you hurt me in Ezekiel chapter six. And now we're saying, what are the things that you and I need to guard our hearts against so that we don't find ourselves amongst those that hurt and grieve Yahweh and his spirit?
Don't you want to know that? Don't you want to know what hurts and grieves God so you can guard your life from it? And know that as you do, put into place those measures to keep your relationship with Yahweh connected.
It means that oftentimes you'll be separated from other people because the world is going one way and God's children are going another way. So realize there is a price to pay and just get ready to pay that cost. And when you do pay a cost to love him and be in fidelity to him, even if that means you're rejected by the world, you should rejoice because you're sharing in the sufferings of Jesus, who was rejected and crucified by the world.
Jesus said, if the world rejects them, neither are going to reject you. And we've been chosen not only to reign with Yeshua, but to suffer with him. So recognize that to be separate from the world because of your fidelity to Yahweh means that you're going to be excluded by the world.
Jesus said, if you are of the world, the world would love you. If you act like the world, if you dress like the world, if you talk like the world, if you entertain yourself with the world, Jesus said, the world's going to love you because the world loves its own. If you're of the world, Jesus said, the world would love you.
But because I chose you on the world, said Yeshua, therefore the world hates you. So I just want you to get ready. If you're serious about your relationship with God, you've got to count the cost and recognize that there's a price to pay and make a decision to happily bear the cross, the cross of the world's reproach because of your love for Jesus and know that there's a great reward coming.
So here we go. What hurts Yahweh? There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven, which are an abomination to him.
And now we're going to list them. We're going to go through each one. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.
Seven things Yahweh hates. Let's take a look at them. Number one, haughty eyes.
What does this mean? To carry yourself with a puffed up heart, to look down upon other people, to judge other people. Just pride is basically what it is.
But if you think about it, how many social contexts have you been in where either you had a haughty spirit or somebody that you were with had a haughty spirit and the person that you were with had a haughty spirit and you just kind of like rolled with it all. But God hates it because you and I, we are what we are by the grace of God. Whatever we have that's good, we only have for one reason, because Yahweh gave it to us.
Are you smart? You don't look down upon people that are maybe as intelligent or as gifted to you in some type of intellectual context because you know what? You're only who you are because the Lord made you that way.
We are humble. We humble ourselves. Everyone's our brothers and sisters.
So Yahweh hates when his people carry themselves with a haughty spirit. Then the Lord continues, a lying tongue. Six, yea, seven things which the Lord hates.
The next one he lists is a lying tongue. Are you aware of things that are coming out of your mouth that aren't really authentic or true, but yet you say them because you want to fit in? I'm not putting anybody down, but I want you to examine yourself, just as I am continually examining myself.
Are you even laughing at jokes that people say that you don't even think are funny or even are an insult to God because you want to be accepted? You know, when you laugh at a lie, you've become, in a sense, part of a lie. That's a lying spirit.
And you know what? This is a problem that many of us have to be careful about. Exaggeration, exaggerating a circumstance, exaggerating telling about a circumstance.
Exaggeration is lying. And if we say something that's not true just because we want to appease people around us or because we're afraid of the consequences of telling the truth, you know what? We're living in the spiritual dynamic of a lie.
We must be truthful. The Bible says that the church is the pillar of truth in the earth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
I want you to be aware, and even as I apply this to my own life, I want you to be aware of the words that come out of your mouth. Are they authentic, and are they true? Are they truly true?
And so, as you're in a situation, you don't know, well, how can I tell the truth? Because if I tell the truth, it's going to create this conflict. If you're committed to telling the truth, I believe from experience, God will give you the wisdom to tell the truth in such a way that it doesn't cause destruction, but brings the whole situation forward deeper into the light.
And then the Lord continues here, hands that shed innocent blood. Now, what does this mean? It means taking advantage of innocent people for our own financial gain.
We need to be careful how we treat other people, especially people that are too vulnerable or too naïve to know how to protect themselves. How do you treat people that might be challenged in some way, whether it's physically or mentally or emotionally? This is so important.
I mean, God is for the underdog. God is for the challenged and the disenfranchised. We need to be so careful with how we treat people.
And I believe this concept of shedding innocent blood conveys the idea of making sure that we treat those in society that are very vulnerable with love and respect and sensitivity. Do you do that? Do you do that?
You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. We want you to know there are so many ways that you can watch and listen to Rabbi's programs. Online, you'll find us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com.
You can find resources like our television broadcast schedule, Rabbi's messages on your podcasting platform, YouTube content, devotionals, and much more. You can even follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Check out all these resources online today.
At the core of everything we do at Discovering The Jewish Jesus is our commitment to declare the whole council of God's Word from start to finish. In fact, Rabbi's unique way of connecting the Old and the New Testaments has helped people all over the world to understand the Bible with fresh eyes. To join us in this work of God, give a donation online today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com, or call 800-777-7835.
And now here is Rabbi Schneider.
Continuing on, God hates a heart that devises wicked plans. I mean, think of the media today. Think of our major media outlets, our news channels.
Always thinking about how to spin something out there to create controversy. All it does is it brings society from one degree of evil into another degree of evil. Looking for ways to scheme and to create chaos to bring forth that which is the spectacular.
Thinking of an evil plan to bring forth the spectacular into the news cycle, just so they can get more reviews and the destruction that's caused to society. God is going to crush all this and destroy it. He hates it, hates it, hates it.
And we can't have anything to do with it. Paul said, stay away from conversations that really are just wicked, conversations that lead to nothing profitable. But he said instead, speak forth that which is edifying.
And God hates feet that rapidly run to evil. What does it mean to rapidly run to evil? Well, I just think of gossip.
Do you have to resist gossiping about somebody else? Many of you do. You know what?
Resist it. A lot of times, I want you to hear this, a lot of times we try to escape our own issues, the pain in our own life, our own emotional disturbance. We try to escape ourselves, listen now, by gossiping about other people.
And this leads us to rapidly run to evil, to do things that are evil because we're trying to escape the lack of peace that we have in our own life. Yahweh hates this. He sees right through it.
The Word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, and it divides the soul from the spirit. God knows exactly what's going on in your life and why you do the things you do. And you and I need to get a hold of ourself and develop enough self-awareness that we can understand why we do what we do and begin to separate our motives so we can abide and stay in Him.
And this has to do with the next thing that Yahweh hates, being a false witness who utters lies. It's so horrendous, and it's all over the place. It's all over the place.
I mean, if you think about this concept of feet running to evil and being a false witness and spreading lies, and the next one, spreading strife amongst others, just look at social media today. It blows me away sometimes. I'll put something out there on social media with the best of intent, and sometimes something that I think is just really gorgeous because it's the beauty of God.
I mean, I've released segments before on the beauty of God, and yet there's people out there, and they criticize it. It's like, what? What?
I remember one YouTube live that I did on the beauty of God, and I was wearing a hat that I had made up of all the colors of the rainbow because I was talking about an encounter I had with Jesus in which he manifested himself to me in living color. And I've had this hat for 10 years because of my earliest experience with Jesus in which he manifested himself to me in association with color. And so I was wearing this hat, talking about the beauty of God, and talking about how I had just had this encounter with the Lord, and he manifested his beauty to me through electric living color.
And one of the comments was right away, if you've had that hat for 10 years, why didn't you wear it on television before? And it's like, what? We're talking about the beauty of God.
And yet, to the pure, all things are pure. But to the filed person, everything is defiled, and the lens that they see from is defiled. The point is, beloved, this is what we see on social media today.
So much hate, so much hate and division. And it's just like, this is from the power of darkness, and we need to see it for what it is and separate ourselves from it. Not get involved in conversation about it, not have anything to do with it.
Push it away and keep your eyes on Yahweh like a racehorse that has blinders, and you have to resist, because evil is alluring. Listen, isn't there something in us we want to gossip? In our heart, there's something in us that want to say something about somebody which we know isn't right to say.
We want to contribute our two cents to the conversation and speak something negative about a situation or a person. We have to recognize that we need to close the door to that and not say it. Again, the last thing that Yahweh hates is a false witness who speaks or utters lies and someone that spreads strife amongst others.
We have to guard our tongue. James said, if you could control your tongue, you'll control the destiny of your life. One of the first and most important things that we should do as believers, beloved, to get on track with Yahweh, to get power released into our life, is to control our tongue.
We can be sent into the Spirit and have a sense of, I should or shouldn't say it. That's what we need to do. So I want to continue on now, moving from the negative aspect of what hurts Yahweh, what grieves Yahweh, what Yahweh hates.
I want to move forward now into who He is and focus on His glory, focus on His beauty. Now, how do we know, moving on from where we've been, who this great, glorious, beautiful God of ours is? Who is Yahweh?
He's a person and He's sensitive, but who is He? Well, my beloved friend, I believe one of the greatest portions of Scripture is found in the book of Shemot, or Exodus, chapter number 33. In Exodus 33, what we have here is that Moses is crying out to this one that he had met at the burning bush, Yahweh, to show him his glory.
Moses is saying to Yahweh, show me your glory. Yahweh commissioned Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt into the promised land and into the desert to worship him. But Moses is insecure about this call.
So he keeps on asking Yahweh to help him to know that he's with them. Moses says, show me your favor. Help me to know your favors with me.
And Yahweh says, my favor is with you. And finally, the conversation between Moses and Yahweh comes to the climax when Moses cries out, show me your glory. And Yahweh says to Moses, no man can see my face and live Moses.
But I want you to go into the cleft of the rock and call upon my name. Call the name of Yahweh. And I'm gonna pass by in front of you.
And you won't be able to see my face, but you'll see my back. And I'm gonna proclaim my name to you. So, Moses goes in the cleft of the rock, and he calls upon the name Yahweh.
And Yahweh passes by and proclaims to Moses his name. And Moses is filled with the revelation knowledge of who this person, who this Yahweh is. When a rocket takes off from planet Earth, it has to break through the gravity that surrounds the world in order to become weightless.
In the same way, there are certain things, beloved, that you and I must do to get free in Yeshua. Jesus said, he that tries to save his life will lose it, but he that loses his life for my sake shall save it. In order to lose our life, in order to live lives of sacrifice, in order to be givers, we have to break through the resistance of being takers and being selfish.
I want to encourage you, beloved ones, to practice this principle with your finances. It may seem like I'm just a preacher asking for money, but the fact is, what I'm sharing with you is true. I would simply say this, all of us need to be givers, and all of us need to honor the Lord with our finances.
If this ministry's been a blessing to you, I want to encourage you, make a sacrificial gift unto the Lord through Discovering The Jewish Jesus today. God bless you. Thank you in advance, and shalom.
You can support Discovering The Jewish Jesus with a gift of any amount by going online right now and donating at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also give a gift of any amount by calling us at 800-777-7835. And you can send your financial donation in the mail to DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.pobox777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228.
And as our way of saying thanks for your generosity, we want to send you Rabbi Schneider's Message of the Month. It's available as a digital download, and we'll make sure that you receive our latest newsletter in the mail as well. And before we wrap up today, I want to share that Rabbi has a free gift for you.
And if you haven't claimed it yet, we don't want you to miss out on getting your copy of A Guide to Hearing God's Voice. It's an MP3 audio download, and it's a thought-provoking message that's aimed at helping you nurture your relationship with God. It's really good, and it'll help you recognize the Holy Spirit's leading.
It'll help you sift through other thoughts that come from yourself, thoughts that might come from the enemy, or maybe that other people are even sharing with you, to recognize when it is that God's actually speaking to you. And you can get your free copy right now. Just go online to myfreegift.com/hearing.
Once again, the web address is myfreegift.com/hearing.
And you know, together, we truly can deepen our understanding of Scripture and share it with the whole world. Your support, no matter what amount, it helps us do that. So make sure to give today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or text your donation to us by typing the keyword rabbi to the phone number 45777.
That's all the time we have for today right now. And as always, we close each program with a special blessing. Here's Rabbi.
In the Old Testament Book of Numbers, we find a blessing God speaks over his children through Moses and Aaron. It carries the idea of favor and expression. Open your heart to the Spirit and the Word today and receive Father's goodness into your life with confidence.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance, and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace.
God bless you, and shalom.
Let our prayer team pray for you. We lift up every individual request before the Lord. And then, as God answers your prayer request, or if God has touched your life through Discovering the Jewish Jesus, send us your testimony.
We want to rejoice with you, and your testimony will encourage others. Submit your prayer request or testimony at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also connect with us on your social media outlets to stay up to date on the content you love.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe on YouTube. Connecting with Discovering the Jewish Jesus has never been easier.
Discovering the Jewish Jesus is a production of Shalom Ministries, and I'm Dustin Roberts. Join us again when Rabbi Schneider continues our study on God's names called To Know Him by Name. That's Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus. send us your testimony.
We want to rejoice with you, and your testimony will encourage others. Submit your prayer request or testimony at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also connect with us on your social media outlets to stay up to date on the content you love.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe on YouTube. Connecting with Discovering the Jewish Jesus has never been easier.
Discovering the Jewish Jesus is a production of Shalom Ministries, and I'm Dustin Roberts. Join us again when Rabbi Schneider continues our study on God's names called To Know Him by Name. That's Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
Today, Pastor Jack teaches that as we follow Paul’s example, ministry produces faithfulness, and humility keeps us usable and open to the leading of God.
The post Behind The Scenes Ministry – B first appeared on Pastor Jack Hibbs.
Today, on Real Life Radio.
Listen to this, it's the only thing God ever lays on us in this amazing challenge. Try me now in this, says the Lord of Host. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will be not room enough to receive it.
What is he saying? You cannot out bless me, God is saying.
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.
There are a lot of voices out there shouting this and that, spreading lies, personal agendas, and deceitful half-truths. But when we fill our minds and hearts with the Word of God and have a quiet time with the Lord, those voices are silenced. You see, the Lord speaks with a still small voice, but His words are powerful and true.
So if you haven't started a devotional time or just need some direction, we'd like to help. Pastor Jack has weekly devotions on his website that includes a Bible verse and a conversation with him that relates to that verse. Simply go to jackhibbs.com and click on the Devotions tab.
There are also previous devotions that you can enjoy every day of the week. You can even email us if you've been blessed and want to share your experience. Again, it's on our website at jackhibbs.com, that's jackhibbs.com.
On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called First Corinthians with a message titled, Behind The Scenes Ministry. First Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Church of God in Corinth, and he shares with us how he's not ashamed to express his love and care for others in a practical way. You see, in these verses of Chapter 16, Paul ends First Corinthians and is unapologetic about his emotions and burdens.
Paul's Christianity was a deeply personal thing. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that as we follow Paul's example, ministry produces faithfulness, and humility keeps us usable and open to the leading of God. Now, with his message called Behind The Scenes Ministry, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
If we need you, if God needs you to keep his ministry afloat, send in money, take a $100 bill and tear off the edge and mail us the big portion, and you keep that little portion and you plant it in faith, it's gonna break forth into millions. But make sure you send us the bigger portion of the $100 bill.
What are they saying?
We ain't got no faith.
We're counting on you to pull this thing off because God ain't in it.
Come on, that's what it's all about.
If they had faith, they would say, tear off that $100 bill, you keep the big part and send us the little part and our great faith will grow that up into millions.
They don't do that.
Was that pretty good? Was that okay? All right, all right, just checking.
In Acts chapter 8 verse 1, here's the proof text and many other verses as well. But this consequential trouble that came upon them, it says that at that time great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem. They overstayed their welcome in Jerusalem.
Verse 2, he says, storing up as he may prosper. This is amazing. Circle the word.
It's important. I don't want to belabor it. We'll deal with it in some other book of the Bible.
Simply this. In the Old Testament, tithing was required. In fact, when you put all of the giving of the Old Testament upon the believer, it was about 30 to 33% of your income you were supposed to give to God.
Listen, in the New Testament, that's not the case. In fact, Pastor Lin said a moment ago, tithes and offerings. That's not exactly accurate, though we do that out of tradition.
It makes sense to people rather than have to explain it every Sunday. In the New Testament, we don't do tithes. We don't do a tithe.
You know what tithe means? Tenth. We don't do a tenth percent.
New Testament giving is everything.
That's the difference.
See, what are you talking about everything? Everything. Pastor, you ought to talk on tithing.
No.
Biblically, I should talk on everything. It all belongs to him. Did you know that God as a Christian, we as Christians in our relationship to God, whatever he gives us, it belongs to him, and we're supposed to be stewards over it.
It's all his. Do you have a checkbook?
Do you have a savings account? Do you have whatever you have? Do you have a card?
Do you have clothes?
It's all his.
It's his. It's to be used to his glory because we're Christians. And that is godly.
That is holy. That should be a beautiful representation. It shouldn't be panic.
It shouldn't be pressure. Well, if you don't give, we'll have to see if you're going to be a member of this church or not. That's wrong, man.
Everything belongs to God. And let me tell you right now, shocker-roony, God's not broke. He says, store up as God has prospered you.
Meaning, watch, as a believer, I'm to live a disciplined life. I'm to live within my means. What God, watch, what God blesses me with, I'm to pay my bills, okay?
I'm to make sure that my family's fed. This is our first ministry. That our family is fed, the roof over their head, okay, that our kids are not walking around naked, all right?
That is our first ministry. Take care of our home, okay? Then the next thing is this.
I'm to take some of that money that God has given me and put it this week in reserve. Now, back in those days, they were paid daily. And then we switched to weekly, and then twice a month.
Some people get paid now once a month. Daily, you take and you store, because it belongs to God. God has given me what I need.
Watch this. Did God provide, for example, isn't it great, the air conditioning today?
Hallelujah!
Yes, God provided the air conditioning. We praise the Lord for that. But listen, outside of that, what's next?
Did God provide for my family and food? Yes. Now, outside of that, what's next, Lord?
What's next, Lord? Paul says, store up, be ready. Have it ready, like bullets and a gun.
You got it ready. You're ready. When we get away from that, listen, we run in debt.
When we get away from that, we're broke. When we get away from that, we take money that God has ordained for us to use for the kingdom, and we buy stupid stuff. And we get into trouble.
And then we lose that amount of income for whatever reason, maybe a famine, maybe persecution, and we can't pay the bills. Why? Because we have gotten into things that God didn't want us to get into.
Well, everybody's got one.
That's not an answer to God. Matthew chapter 10, verse 8 says, Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely every seed, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs, for a worker is worthy of his food.
What does that mean? Jesus was sending out his missionary team, and he's just basically saying, trust God, but be wise. Church, listen, mark it down.
Christian homes, make this your mantra when it comes to money. Money, X out the word, and just use the word tools. Tools, God has given me 500 tools.
Always look at it as tools, because it's God's business. And Paul is saying, we need to help the church. We need to take up a collection and get some of those practical tools over to the church in Jerusalem, which is hurting.
That's very important. When we are to give, it is to be proportionate to what God has given us. We cannot specify a 10th, a 15th, 5% percentage.
We cannot say 80%. What's his name? Colgate.
You know Colgate? The Colgate company? The guy that founded Colgate, he made a vow to God.
He was completely broke. He had some good ideas. And he says, God, if you prosper this, I'll give you 90% of what I make.
And he did. He said, how does a guy live? God blessed him.
Hello. Pretty big. I'd like, you and I'd like to live off the 10%.
Billions of dollars. What a way to start out. As believers, we need to be thinking about that.
The more the Lord blesses you, is he blessing you? Then listen, the more proportionate you're supposed to give to his work. Well, what percentage?
That's between you and God. By the way, 2 Corinthians tells us that when we give, we should be hilarious about it. Did you know that?
The Bible says that we are not to be, well, grumpy givers. Oh man, here comes that plate. Here you go.
Man, I can't believe it.
Ouch. And you drop in your two dollars, and it's like, oh man, that's going to kill me.
You know what?
Stop the plate. Back up.
Take your two bucks. In fact, take a dollar out for your pathetic state. God doesn't need your money.
He doesn't need your money, man. You understand that when we give, it keeps our hearts right. Well, you know, I'm not giving.
Listen, God will speak to somebody else to give. You are ripping yourself off. And listen, it's funny how many people want to talk about not giving.
I can't give. I can't. Listen, people who put it down, number one, don't understand anything about worship.
The second thing is they love money more than God. People make a big issue about giving to God. You can tell in a second, my man, they're married to that money.
The Christian should be liberating with the tools. Big difference. Malachi chapter three, verse eight.
Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, in what way have I robbed you? In tithes and offerings.
You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the ties into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And listen to this, it's the only thing God ever lays on us in this amazing challenge.
Try me now in this, says the Lord of Hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing, that there will be not room enough to receive it. What is he saying?
You cannot out bless me, God is saying. And God says, if you were not helping the advancement of the kingdom, he says, you're robbing me. Look at verses three to five.
Yield it to the Lord this way, in the labor with his people, to labor or in the labor of his people with his people. And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters, look how practical this is, I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem. Send some guys with your offering and we'll make sure that it gets to Jerusalem.
But if it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me. Verse five, now I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia. This is so practical.
So Jack, what's the great thing about this verse? I don't know, except just pure practicality. You know what he's saying?
I am not gonna put myself in the place of carrying the money. Isn't that wise? I don't know if you know this about this church.
I can't spend money. The pastors here cannot spend money. From the beginning, and I'm so grateful that Pastor Chuck Smith instructed us wisely from the beginning, I can't sit down and write a check.
I have never been able to sit down and write a check. It takes multiple check signers. It takes multiple eyes to approve that.
No one has access to cash unless there's a thief in the hen house. There's codes. There's all this stuff.
Why? To ensure the safety and the integrity of it. We have in this church, and we have had for over 10 years, an outside firm that audits annually the books of this church.
Why? Because we don't think maybe someday the IRS will call our books into question. We expect them to do it every year.
And we're ready. Why? How do we know?
An outside firm in Los Angeles does the books. And by the way, you should see the contract. They're responsible for goof ups.
There's a lot of accountability, a lot of, you hear what I'm saying? There's a lot on the line. Paul is saying, I'm not gonna carry the money.
Isn't that wise? It's awesome. Listen, churches, there should never, I cringed recently when a man told me regarding his church.
He was a board member, actually, and he is the sole signer of the church's check-in account. I said, are you crazy? You gotta get away from that man.
You gotta get, you gotta change that. Listen, danger, you may have, you may be, maybe you're in the church right now, and that's your, that's your thing. You're the, you're the person that handles the funds.
You better watch out. There should be a group of people with wise eyes. And Paul, what a great witness and testimony, and bottom line, look, it's laboring with God's people together.
Not isolated, not some lone ranger. Verses six through eight teaches us this. Yielded to the Lord, open to his leading, being open to the leading of the Lord.
You guys, this is really gonna let the, I think the air out of the balloon in some ways of how we see Paul or even ministry itself. Look at verse eight, or verse six. And it may be, I have, it may be underlined in my Bible, and it may be that I will remain or even spend the winter with you, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go.
For I do not wish to see you now on the way, but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits. Verse 8, I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. Do you know what this is?
Is being open to the leading of God. Man, I tell you, is this not just pure practical stuff? Don't you want Paul the Apostle to say, all right, here's the deal.
I'm going to be arriving on donkey 295 at 345 in the afternoon on March 16th. This is the Apostle Paul. He must have an entourage.
He must have people, he must have handlers. He must have everything on his, right? Look right here, verses 6 to 8.
Not sure where I'm going to be. Not sure when I'm going to arrive. Not sure how it's going to come down.
I hope to see you. And let me tell you, this is great liberty and freedom, because I gotta tell you, and I have to make sure that I rebuke myself in this. I need people around me to tell me, Robin, you know, I need people around me to say, Jack, you're supposed to be over there at 3 o'clock.
Okay, thanks. Okay, I live in a tornado. And I need people to point me in the right direction when I'm supposed to be there at a certain time.
Okay? That's good. Planning is not bad, but when planning supersedes the will of God, now we are slaves to our agenda and it may simply only be our agenda and not God's.
When the apostle Paul says, I hope to be there, what a tremendous liberating statement that is. He's being led by the Lord. Jesus says the Holy Spirit, when he moves, he's like the wind.
You can't tell where he's coming from or where he's going, but you see the effect.
You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com, that's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching.
Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
The Holy Spirit had control of Paul's life, and the Holy Spirit wants to have control of your life. It doesn't mean that you're uncertain and double-minded and confusing and messed up. It means that you, when God speaks, He speaks into your plan, and God holds the sole right to usurp authority over your plan.
It's okay to have a plan, but God says, you know what, we're changing the plan. We don't like to hear this as humans, do we? I want to know thus and so.
And Paul goes, I don't know. Wow. You guys have heard this before, I think.
If not, write it down, it's brilliant. Pastor Chuck Smith said years ago, this is his, this is, he says, this is Chuck 1-1. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.
We can become so entrenched that we're no longer open to the Holy Spirit anymore. God help us if we become like that as a church. Well, this is the way we've always done it.
It's got to be done this way. Watch out. Well, it's this way.
It's on the calendar. It's this. Watch out.
I'm not saying be irresponsible, but I'm saying be open to the Lord. Point number two this morning, verses nine to fourteen. Behind the Scenes Ministry talks about growing with every opportunity.
Growing with every opportunity. Look at verses nine to eleven. Ministry produces faithfulness.
Listen, some of you please mark this down or at least record it in your heart. Faithfulness. Ministry produces faithfulness.
Every one of you who are Christians today are supposed to be involved in some ministry. Every one of us. If you're not, you're a spectator to Christianity.
You're supposed to get involved in something. You're supposed to pray, which means you're going to talk to God, and then you have to listen, and then he's going to give you some marching orders, and you're to act. This is true Christianity.
Are you with me, everybody? You are to pray, ask God where you're to be used. Listen to his response, get up, and then go.
All of that is of faith. And ministry is a pretty awesome thing, because it takes the Bible and puts it into practice in your life. It goes from theory to practical use.
And ministry produces faithfulness. That's what we learn in verses nine to 11. He says, for a great and effective door has opened to me.
And there are many adversaries. Please mark verse nine down. Church, listen.
In Acts 14, the Bible says, verse 21, And they had preached the gospel to that city, and made many disciples. People had come to Christ with Paul's missionary team. And they returned from Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, saying, we must through many tribulations or difficulties inherit the kingdom of God.
Why do we bring in this verse? Because listen, Christians are to get involved. When you get involved, it demands and produces faithfulness.
Whenever, hello, you are faithful, you will have adversaries. Let me ask you something. Are you willing to be hated for Jesus' name today?
You need to count the cost of that. If you are going to follow Jesus, in fact, you know what people say, listen, even in the Christian community, there is a cop out statement. Watch this.
You have heard this. If you want to hide, you want to be religious and not effective, but you are even in the ministry, but you don't want to get too effective because you could make enemies. People will say, well, we are a church that's all about what we are for.
We are all about what God is for. Doesn't it sound good? That sounds good.
We are all about what God is for. And they will say, we don't want people, we don't want the community to know what we are against. We don't want to be negative.
Are you hearing me? That sounds very good. But let me ask you something.
If you are going to follow Jesus, is Jesus, listen, regarding the defense of children, babies, to spare their life or not, is God for that? Is He for life or is He against life? He's for life.
If you stand for life, then guess what? You're against death. But we're a church that we want people to know what we're for.
The moment you stand, do you understand something? The moment you take a stand for something, there's an opposing view to your stand. So when somebody says, well, we want to be a church of what we're known for.
Well, then ask the church, what are you against? Nothing. Do you hear me?
This is a big deal because people who don't do anything will say to those who are doing something, well, you know what? They're just against stuff. Okay.
I, for example, there are churches who say that Jack guy, he's against so much. And so I say, what am I against? I want you to name it.
What am I against? And you, and it's great because the things that I'm for, God is for. But the moment you're for marriage or you're for babies or you're, you hear what I'm saying?
The moment you take a stand, you're going to get hit. So let me ask you something. It is my prayer.
If I were sending you out in first Corinthians 16, I would say, be Biblical about your stand and stop worrying about the trendy moving opinions of people. Make sure that what you stand for is 100% Biblically based, and it's something Jesus would stand for. And then listen, go, go for it.
Because people are going to come against you, even in so-called Christianity, they're going to hate you. This is a critical thing. And Paul says, a great door has opened up for me, but man is there adversity and adversaries.
That's how you know you're on the right path.
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, with his message called Behind The Scenes Ministry. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Corinthians.
It's a series on the Corinthian Church and the Apostle Paul's bold call for purity. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack, tell me why you think that the rapture is so fascinating to pretty much every Christian on the planet.
Well, first of all, it's fascinating because Jesus is the first one to bring it up. A lot of people don't realize that.
No, I didn't know.
Jesus brought it up, first of all, on John chapter 14 of the Gospel of John. In John 14, verses 1 to 3, Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house, that's heaven above.
In my Father's house are many mansions, dwelling places. And if it were not so, I would have told you. I go now to prepare a place for you.
Where? The Father's house. And he says, and I will come and receive you to myself, that where I am, the Father's house.
There you may be also. And of course, Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 elaborates on the details of that beautifully. And again, Paul does it in 1 Corinthians 15 about us being changed in a twinkling of an eye.
That there will be a generation of believers that will not see death. Their life on earth will be interrupted by the life coming from heaven. And will not see death.
Do you hope you're in that time?
Oh, come on. Are you kidding?
Stupid question.
I'm disappointed we're doing this radio program right now. I thought we would be gone by this morning. But I'm gonna live.
I'm gonna live. Listen, I know that sounds crazy, but I would submit to you that this is the best Christianity and the most biblical Christianity to live is like Paul lived. Paul lived believing Christ could return at any moment.
And we know this from first and second Thessalonians. He says so. But at the same time, Paul preached and prepared the next generation of believers all the way to us today.
The fun thing is, if Jesus said, I'm coming back, if the Book of Revelation ends by saying, watch, I'm Jesus, I'm returning soon, be watchful. Well, that was said 2,000 years ago. So then how much closer are we?
What you need to know about The Rapture by Charles Ryrie, it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/realradio, jackhibbs.com/realradio.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com, that's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word.
We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
Instruction from the days of Ezekiel reminds us that God has made it possible for you and I to live eternally when our lives end. There is no reason why one should die spiritually or not be prepared.
To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1561/29
A new heart, a new spirit. What a joy that we not only are living, but we can live. Let's talk about that today from the International Gospel Hour.
Please stay right here.
Hi, this is Jay Webb for International Gospel Hour. For 90 years, churches of Christ have proclaimed God's Word through International Gospel Hour. You are about to listen to another Bible-based lesson with Jeff Archie of International Gospel Hour, starting now.
Well, greetings and hello, everyone. It is our honor that you are with us again today for our studies from the International Gospel Hour. We have been on air or online since 1934, and we are going to press along with the beautiful riches of Jesus Christ.
We appreciate our J-Web, and you will hear from J throughout our broadcast. He will share with you some social media information, as well as our Bible study course by mail. We'd like to encourage you to check us out on YouTube.
That's right. You can see the International Gospel Hour television program in between your broadcast from where you're listening to us right here. You can see us, you can study along with us, and that's International Gospel Hour located on YouTube.
In Romans 15 and verse 4, Paul said, For whatever things were written for a time were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scripture, might have hope. Those things written for a time in the New Testament are written that we may learn and understand, that would contribute to our patience and comfort of the hope that we have in Christ. Friends, we're going to go back to the old things written for a time, to the book of Ezekiel today, and let's learn some lessons from the past that will help us in the present.
But first, a few words from our J-Web.
You can find International Gospel Hour on X, formally known as Twitter. Just search Our Gospel. That's H-O-U-R-G-O-S-P-L.
Feel free to re-Tweet or re-post our content. International Gospel Hour is on X, formally Twitter, at H-O-U-R-G-O-S-P-L. That's H-O-U-R-G-O-S-P-L.
Thanks for following.
Let's continue with our reading today from Ezekiel 18, verses 25 through 32. Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, O house of Israel, Is it not my way which is fair, And your ways which are not fair?
When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, Commits iniquity and dies in it, It is because of the iniquity Which he has done that he dies. Again, when a wicked man turns away From the wickedness which he committed, And does what is lawful and right, He preserves himself alive. Because he considers and turns away From all the transgressions which he committed, He shall surely live, he shall not die.
Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not fair. O house of Israel, It is not my ways which are fair. And your ways which are not fair?
I mean, is it not my ways which are fair, And your ways which are not? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, Every one according to his ways, Says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, So that iniquity will not be your ruin.
Cast away from you all the transgressions Which you have committed, And get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, Says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live.
Pretty good stuff. Let's learn from it. Friends, God's ways are equal and fair.
His ways are set, and his word is firm. And we know what God expects of us, and we know what good things that he has done. It was a number of years ago where I was worshiping, that we set out to visit former members, those who had fallen away from the Lord's Church.
I recall a follow-up visit, because we would note this on a piece of paper, and I recall a follow-up visit that it was said. When they visited with this young brother, he simply said, I know what is right, and when I get ready, I'll do it. Friends, that is a telling statement.
First of all, there's no doubt he wanted to continue living the way that he wanted to live. And when he says, I know what is right, and when I get ready, I'll do it, he knew that his life and his choices were not right, but he preferred them that way. I believe Hebrews 11 refers to that around verses 24 or 25, a passing pleasure of sin.
And Satan makes sin look good. To my knowledge, he never got ready. He never made it right.
What a horrid thought, friends. You know, from this text, we learn mankind makes decisions. Now, please notice, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness, okay, that's his choice.
He turns from his righteousness, and he lives an unrighteous life. We cannot blame God when God has provided all that we need. How about this?
When a wicked man turns from his wickedness, well, friends, that is his choice. He turns because he sees a better life in Christ. And man must respond, and he will respond to the consequences of his decisions, and he cannot blame God.
Think about what all God has done to redeem man. There is nothing more that God can do. Sending his only begotten son to die for us is the greatest gift ever given.
John 3.16, Romans 5, verses 6 through 10. You know, God is very clear. His ways are fair.
He does make it possible for man to make the best decisions, the right decisions, and to live a godly life which is the best life. And, for example, here he offers man to repent here in the book of Ezekiel, to turn away and to cast away transgressions and get a new heart and a new spirit. That's better living.
And then God asks the question we want to consider for the remainder of our broadcast, Why should you die? With all that said, friends, why should one die spiritually, when there is a better life through God? Let's go back once again to the verses of Ezekiel 18, or verses 30 through 32.
Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore, turn and live. You know, that expression of love and concern is also noted in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9.
The Bible says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter is speaking of the second coming of Christ, and many times people will say, I wonder why the Lord doesn't come on back. Maybe it's because there are lives that he is longing to see change.
Remember, he is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We embrace the beautiful text of the Bible of John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, my friends, if we look upon God as one who is out to get us, my, what a way to look at God!
Now, while yes, friends, we must acknowledge his goodness, and, yes, his severity, that's Romans 11, 22, it is evident that it is our decisions that determine his decision. He is for us. He's not willing that anyone should perish.
That's why when I see what all God has done, and I embrace the beauty of belief that Jesus commanded, as we note in John 3, 16, in John 8 and verse 24, in Hebrews 11 and verse 6, but belief alone will not get it. The devils believe, yet tremble, James 2, 19, but my faith moves me to be as those in the Old Testament, to repent, to turn, to change my direction of life. And that's the command of repentance that Jesus said in Luke 13, 3, that he commanded to be preached as part of the Great Commission and the preaching of the Gospel, Luke 24, 44-47, to what Peter said on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, 38, to repent, that repentance would be the command of God, Acts 17, 13, and 31, according to Paul on Mars Hill.
And then we confess our faith, as Jesus said, if we confess him before men, he will confess us before his father, Matthew 10, verse 32. Then we are able to be baptized into Jesus Christ, in order to be saved, based upon our faith, Mark 16, 16. It also remits our sins, Acts 2, 38, washes away our sins, Acts 22, 16, and places us within the church where there is the saved, Acts 2, verse 47.
And then we begin that faithful walk. We turn from the error of our ways, and we walk in the path of the ways of God. What a beautiful thought.
Friends, would you like to study this further? Would you like to examine these things on your own? We can help you, and here is our J-Web with our information for our Bible course by mail.
Our well-received Bible study course by mail is available to everyone absolutely free. Would you like to try it? All you do is call us toll-free at 855-444-6988, and leave your name, address, and just say, Home Study.
That's it. That's all you have to do. You may also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com, click on the Contact tab, and leave us the same information, name, address, and type Home Study in the message box.
At your own pace, you can study the Bible in your own home. Again, it's free. Give it a try.
And it's from your friends here at International Gospel Hour.
Friends, we hope to hear from you soon, and there's no need for us to die through all God has done for us. Let's continue our studies another time. Thank you for joining me today on the International Gospel Hour.
I'm Jeff Archie, and friends, keep listening.
Thank you for listening to our broadcast today. To God goes all the glory, and we hope that our study today will draw you closer to His Word to walk in His way. To listen to it again or our other broadcasts, please visit our website at internationalgospelhour.com.
As believers, we must not be deceived by the growing evil in this world. On today’s edition of Family Talk, you’ll hear from Eric Metaxas, who is an acclaimed author, speaker, and host of The Eric Metaxas Show. He passionately shares his views on the ever-deepening spiritual warfare that our country is experiencing, and the responsibilities that God has placed on His church. Christians must awaken from their slumber and be vigilant against the tyranny that threatens our future! 1 Peter 5:8 says, Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/707/29
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It's a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I'm Dr. James Dobson, and I'm thrilled that you've joined us.
The following program is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Well, welcome to another edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh, joined in studio once again by Gary Bauer, the Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dobson Policy Center. Gary, it's good to have you on the broadcast again today.
It's always great to be with you, Roger, and to be on the broadcast. This is such an important time for our country. Families are hurting, there's a lot of anxiety.
So it's good that we have this chance daily to share the thoughts of Dr. Dobson and our team as Americans ask a lot of important questions about what's going on.
Well, one of the new initiatives here at the Dobson Family Institute and the Dobson Policy Center is a website that we've set up. It's the Countdown to Decision 2024. It's all about the national election and also some of the regional issues that are facing a lot of states right now and just motivating Christians who haven't voted historically to vote.
And one of the resources that we have available at our Countdown to Decision 2024 website is a video series hosted by Joseph Backholm from Family Research Council. And this time we're going to get into a little bit of audio from their video of a recording they did with Eric Metaxas. And Eric has become quite a voice of reason in the culture right now, pretty outspoken.
But the truth that he shares is really helping a lot of people see the American landscape for what it's really become.
That's a great way to put it, Roger. You know, Eric Metaxas, and I don't use the words likely, he's an intellectual giant. I mean, the guy brings a level of intellect to this debate that I certainly am all of.
His book, A Letter to the American Church, I hope it convicted the entire church and certainly pastors, because we're at a time in our country that Eric compares to the 1930s in Germany, where not only did the German Christian Church not speak up against what was happening in the culture, to German families, what was happening in the schools, the indoctrination that was taking place. But worse than that, they brought into the church in Germany, the crooked cross of Nazism and put it right next to the cross of Jesus Christ. I can't imagine and yet, Roger, in some ways there's a lot of confused churches doing that today and there's a lot of Christians today that say to us and to Eric Metaxas and to Dr. Dobson, you know, I'm just not interested in politics or government.
Well, guess what? Government is interested in us. So our religious liberty, our liberty to teach our children what to believe about the key issues of life, all that's at stake on Election Day, which is why this November we've got to have on Election Day what some are referring to as Christian Visibility Day, as millions of Christians go to the polls and Eric talks about that very eloquently as he always does.
Well, he certainly does, Gary, and you know, that letter to the American Church book was so powerful and you mentioned earlier how it would be great if we could show it to every church in America or at least have Eric go around and have a conversation about that. Well, a couple of Christian filmmakers were so impressed with it that they made a documentary of this movie called Letter to the American Church. It really is an urgent plea for all Christians and shows those similarities that you were talking about.
Now here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, we are co-sponsoring a free online streaming event of the documentary, Letter to the American Church. It's available for the first 5,000 people who register and it's available absolutely free. Now this is happening coming up this Thursday night, September 26th, at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time.
And in addition to seeing the movie, you'll also get a chance to hear some great commentary from our own Michelle Bachman here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. And you'll hear from the film's producers as well. Now I mentioned there are only 5,000 spots available.
So go to drjamesdobson.org/americanchurch to register. And you can do that right now. That's drjamesdobson.org/americanchurch and be one of the 5,000 people who will be part of this online movie event watching The Letter to the American Church based on the book by Eric Metaxas.
And now let's get into just a little bit of that snippet we were talking about. Some of the audio recorded on our recent podcast on Countdown to Decision 2024 featuring Eric Metaxas right here on this special edition of Family Talk.
As you know I wrote a book called Letter to the American Church. I wrote a sequel. The sequel is called Religionless Christianity, which spells out the rest of the story.
So if people have seen the film Letter to the American Church or read the book Letter to the American Church, I would send them to Religionless Christianity because in that book we are in a war. I say in the new book Religionless Christianity, we are in the third existential crisis of our history. The first was the Revolution.
The second was the Civil War. We are now in the middle of the third existential crisis. It's a different kind of war, but it is all out war.
It is existential. If we fail, we will cease to exist as the nation that we have been. If we had failed in the Revolution, we would have never come into existence.
If we had failed in the Civil War, the Union would have been destroyed and the America we know would have never come into being as we see it today. We are in that kind of a crisis right now. It's a crisis with some people would say secular atheist, but that's really ultimately demonic as I explain in the book, Religionless Christianity, Marxism.
Marxism is by definition, not just atheistic, but anti-God. Karl Marx was a Satanist. This is the kind of stuff you don't hear much.
And it doesn't really matter to the larger conversation. I'm just throwing it in for context, but cultural Marxism is at war with God. If you know the history of Marxism, I mean, even if you go back to the French Revolution before you would call it Marxism, but it's a demonic, secular spirit.
It's a spiritual war that's manifested in the natural. You see it in the Bolshevik Revolution with Lenin and you see it with Stalin. You see it with Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
It's a demonic spirit, a power, a principality, utterly evil and wicked. We're seeing it manifested right now, and that's what we're dealing with. The Church has the job given to us by God, to go to war against evil.
The Lord has saved us for that purpose. He's appointed us to do that. As I say in Letter to the American Church, and I expand in Religionless Christianity, the Church often fails to do what God calls it to do.
The prophets say, do this, and the Church says, no, no, we have reasons not to do it. So that's exactly what happened in Germany when Hitler was rising, which is another demonic thing. The Church said, no, thank you.
And the evil that followed was beyond belief. That's exactly where we are right now in the United States of America. You can be ignorant and serving the devil.
The devil is happy for you to be ignorant and to go along with his plan. You don't need to be on board and say, I want to serve Satan. He's much subtler than that.
And so there are some people who really are openly at war with God. But we know that the enemy is subtle. He comes as an angel of light.
And so many Christians tragically have been fooled. The scripture is clear that believers can be deceived. That is what we're seeing right now.
Christians are often very naïve. There's ignorance and then there's naiveté. Not to understand you're dealing with satanic evil.
And you have to be wise as serpents. I think a lot of Christians think it's holier to be wise as doves. No, that's not what Jesus said.
He said wise as serpents. So we're supposed to recognize evil. Jesus didn't come to make your life better.
He came to defeat sin and death and satan and hell. And I think sometimes in America we think, well, you know, yeah, I guess so. But we don't really believe in evil on that level.
We don't believe in sin and death and hell. We've just kind of moved on and everything's fine. And if we're winsome and friendly, that's not what the scripture says.
And I think all these terrible things that have been happening are meant by God to be a wake up call to the church. I mean, there are no different versions of Christianity. There is only Christianity.
And Christianity is a living relationship with the Lord, which means the Holy Spirit sometimes might guide me to pick up a stone and to kill Goliath and cut off his head. Other times, the Holy Spirit might guide me to pray for someone on the street and to love them. The Holy Spirit is alive.
God is alive. He's a person. And if we're sensitive to him and don't have a hide-bound theology that says, I got to do this all the time, if we are sensitive to God, which is the whole point of us having a relationship with him, we will discern when we are supposed to do X and when we're supposed to do Y.
And I think that the problem always arises when Christians don't do that, when they have a dead relationship, a non-relationship, the German Christians in Germany in the thirties, many of them had that kind of relationship. They say, Oh, the scripture says this and this and this and this. Well, the scripture says a lot of things.
You have to interpret the scripture and you have to say, Lord, what are you saying now? And that's what Bonhoeffer did. Anybody who's read my Bonhoeffer book sees over and over and over how Bonhoeffer changes.
The scripture doesn't change, the Lord doesn't change. But Bonhoeffer's discernment of what do we do now changes. And many in the church in Germany at the time, they couldn't bear that.
They wanted it to be the same thing. And they would say things, lies, demonic lies, like, oh, we don't do politics. If slavery is on the ballot, do you say, well, we don't want to take a position on slavery.
You're serving the devil if you believe that. There's nothing in the scripture that says we're not supposed to be political. Maybe we're not supposed to make an idol of politics.
We're not supposed to make an idol of anything. You're not supposed to make an idol of loving your spouse or your family. But it doesn't mean you're not supposed to do that.
And so, there's a lot of deception, a lot of deception in the church today. On the other hand, there are a lot of people waking up. There are a lot of people, including people we wouldn't even think of as Christians, that are looking around and thinking, what's happening doesn't make any sense.
It seems evil. It seems like maybe God is the only answer to these things. So, I am ultimately hopeful.
But there are many Christians right now, many pastors, many Christian leaders that are deeply deceived. And it's a kind of a nightmare to see it. But I have to say it.
And I pray that some of them would wake up, would understand the times in which we live. I actually wonder whether they're Christians. If they are Christians, they're getting this very, very wrong.
And let's be clear, God is a judge. God will hold you accountable because patriots have died. Christian patriots and pagan patriots have bled and died so that we could advocate for what we believe is right and true in politics.
We're not living in the first century. We're not living in communist Russia or China. We've been given a gift that many of us, we don't deserve the gift because we don't take it seriously.
It's an amazing gift to advocate for God's purposes. Human lives are being destroyed. Young men and women have been propagandized and bullied into thinking they should cut off body parts.
This is some of the most wicked stuff we have ever seen. And in many cases, the church is silent. In many cases, the church does not want to take the trouble to speak the truth.
So they say, well, we just need to love them. Well, the way you love them might not be the way you think. The way you love them might be speaking really clearly on this.
That's just one subject. The idea of erasing our national borders and allowing in millions and millions of strangers is going to bring unspeakable harm to many human beings that the Lord loves. Christians are on the hook for those policies.
If we don't stand against that, the fentanyl flooding in, destroying families, the sex trafficking, child rape. If you're a Christian and you say, well, I think we need to welcome the stranger, you're actually encouraging child rape. Have you ever been around anything like that?
Are you familiar with the cruelty and the violence of drug cartels and how they rape people? This is evil. There's no other way to say it.
It's evil. And we have been given the gift of advocating for God's policies and for electing people who are going to stand against this evil. We have had prominent Christian voices like John Maxwell, like Rick Warren, huge names in the Christian world saying Christians shouldn't be political.
Let me tell you, that is wrong. That is not biblical. And they are harming millions of people.
They have to understand there's a time when it's a moral issue. Corruption in our government, our government trying to censor us, standing against free speech, standing against fair elections, if you don't stand against that, you are guilty. There's the famous phrase attributed to Bonhoeffer.
I don't think he said it, but it's silence in the face of evil is itself evil. When the church is silent in the face of evil, the Lord in the last day will separate the sheep and the goats. And he will say to many, depart from me.
I never knew you. It's a chilling thing. And Christians in America today need to think about those words.
Is it possible the Lord will say that to you because you were not listening? You did not have a personal relationship and you were not open to doing what God called you to do because you were afraid, because you were simply unwilling to obey him. If Christian pastors are not at war with all of the evil that we're seeing, if they are censoring themselves in the pulpit because they're afraid of losing their 501c3 status, they are cowards.
I want to be really clear that this is a test right now. This is not like, well, let's see what happens in five years. This is the test.
And there are many that don't get this. And I say this to them as a warning. I beg you, brothers and sisters, consider what I'm saying.
I wrote a letter to the American Church to speak to those folks, to reason with them and to say, this is not some political screed. On the contrary, what does the scripture say? What is the Lord saying to us?
Imagine if you were a pastor in Germany in the 30s, do we know how many good pastors got it wrong and for the rest of their lives, lived with the burden of guilt that they opened the door to the hell of murdering millions of Jews and millions of others that was on them and they lived with that for the rest of their lives. I'm saying this to my brothers and sisters. We're at that moment right now.
If you look the other way or you have some convenient excuse, God is a judge. He's not fooled by the fig leaf of your theological excuse. He knows what is right and wrong.
He expects you to hear from him and to obey him and to trust him and to rejoice in trusting him. When we're called to the battle, it's not like, oh no, we're called to the battle. The Lord has created us for the battle and he will be with us.
And the meaning of our life comes in being in the battle for God's purposes. And so those who think there can be some third way, they can carve out some religiously neutral space and not be political. I want to say clearly that's a lie from the pit of hell.
That is not where we are at this point. Many believe it, many don't want not to believe it. They're going to cling to it no matter what.
It is shameful, it is wrong, and human beings' lives are going to be destroyed because of those in the church advocating in this way. These people like David French, like Russell Moore, those are a couple of prominent names. They are so in bed with the elites, so willing to say anything to curry favor with the elites as though that might give them more of a hearing with the gospel.
Well, I don't know what kind of dead gospel you're going to be preaching. I don't know what they're going to allow you to preach when these cultural elites finally have the power that you are giving them. It is a chilling thing and this is a moment for the church.
It's like nothing we've seen in the United States of America. And so that's why I think many are just drifting along because they don't know about the evilness of evil. We're seeing it for the first time in our lives, in some ways for the first time in our history.
This is the moment that the Lord is calling to his church to wake up. And the question is how many will wake up? Will enough wake up in time?
Powerful words from Eric Metaxas today here on this special edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh back in studio with Gary Bauer, our Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the James Dobson Policy Center. And the entire conversation is up at drjamesdobson.org/countdown to decision 2024.
Eric Metaxas, he really kind of puts it right between the eyes for us in terms of what the church is facing coming up to November 5th.
Well, he certainly did, Roger. And I wish we could have him pay a visit to every church in America. We are at such a critical time right now.
Look, let me mention something that is a plus that could quickly become a minus. I'm told by experts that right now, the Supreme Court of the United States is more pro religious liberty, more likely to defend religious liberty than any time in the last 50 to 75 years. And there's a very simple reason for that.
It's because President Donald Trump had the chance to fill three Supreme Court vacancies. And the three justices he added to the court are regularly part of a five or six vote majority defending our religious liberty. Now, several justices are up in age.
Presidents appoint justices to the court. Senates confirm them. The left in America is very upset about all this because they want religious Americans to have to bow to the demands, among other things, of the LGBTQ movement.
And so it's imperative that in future Supreme Court vacancies, we get to appoint justices that believe in the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly. Both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer have endorsed a plan to increase the size of the Supreme Court so that they could put more judges on that would not support religious liberty. So this election is extremely important.
People, when they go to the polls, Christians need to be thinking about that. What politicians more pro-life? Which ones more pro-abortion?
Which one will defend religious liberty through their court appointments? Which one will undermine religious liberty? You can just go down the list.
You know, Roger, Eric said a lot about the Christian Church in Germany and how ultimately those pastors that didn't do anything, they had to live with the knowledge that their lack of action contributed to the horror of both what happened in Germany and what ended up being a world war. So I can't impress strongly enough. Every Christian that is in church on Sunday and ends up going to work on Monday needs to be in the voting booth on Tuesday if we're going to save our country.
Absolutely and you'll find resources when you go to drjamesdobson.org/countdown to Decision 2024 that will help you. Obviously we can't speak into all 50 states elections and there are some states that are going to lean one way or the other. We know that they're really not in play, but there are about 10 states, which is 20% of the country that are swing states.
And talk about why it's important, especially for those of us who are hearing this conversation right now, who are in swing states to really take up the mantle and get out and vote. If not, on November 5th, if there's early voting available to you, take advantage of that as well, but make sure your vote is cast and counted.
Well, Roger, you really summarize. I mean, these swing states, places like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, some of these states, for example, have very large Christian populations. And if all those Christians of all races show up and vote, they can swing those states toward pro-life, pro-family, pro-religious liberty candidates, including the important presidential race that we're all watching and following.
And that, those states going for one candidate or another will determine who wins the electoral college. And that will determine who takes the oath of office in January at this very important time for our country.
This is a very critical time in American history and we as Americans who are also Christians need to be in the polling place on Tuesday, November 5th or register to vote early and go take part in the elections early as well. Now the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute is co-sponsoring a free online streaming event by the way based on Eric Metaxas' outstanding book, The Letter to the American Church. You heard an excerpt from it earlier on the program today.
The first 5,000 registrants who go to drjamesdobbson.org/americanchurch and register, it's a free event, all you have to do is sign up, can watch a special streaming of the screening of the documentary that was made based on this book. Again, Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas will be screening this documentary in its entirety for free Thursday, September 26th at 630 p.m. Mountain Time. In addition to the film, you'll also hear from the film's producers and have a special message from our own Michelle Bachman as well.
So go to drjamesdobson.org/americanchurch to register. That's drjamesdobson.org/americanchurch to register. As Gary mentioned a moment ago, this Eric Metaxas presentation is one of several that you'll find at a special website that we've set up to help you become more informed as a voter this election season.
It is Countdown to Decision 2024, featuring Eric Metaxas, Dr. Del Tackett, Kirk Cameron and more. You'll find all of their videos and their reels too, little shorts that you can share with your friends and family members to encourage them to vote and to vote biblically. When you go to drjamesdobson.org/countdown-to-decision-2024, you'll find all those videos, voter guides and more.
In addition, we know that children have been under attack and last week here on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, we heard a special presentation from Riley Gaines, a 12-time All-American swimmer in women's swimming who was forced to give up her space on the podium when a biological male by the name of William Thomas, who swims as a female, Leah Thomas, when he and she actually tied in a specific event. This has led her to become a very outspoken advocate, not only just for women's rights and women's equality in sports, but actually for protecting children as well. And Dr. James Dobson, along with our JDFI president, Joe Warsack, Dr. Owen Strand from the Dobson Culture Center and our Gary Bauer, the Senior Director of the Dobson Policy Center, have all drafted something called a Declaration to Protect Children to show our support for children and biological gender differences that God has ordained.
You can sign this Declaration to Protect Children when you go to drjamesdobson.org/protect the children. That's drjamesdobson.org/protectdash the dash children. Great resources all available for free at our website.
Well, I'm Roger Marsh. Thanks so much for listening today. Join us again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.
This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Dr. Stanley teaches how you can trust the Lord to help you make the best decisions.
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, September twenty-third. Quite often, believers in Jesus expend needless energy in trying to accomplish God's work at our own pace. Let's be reminded of the benefits of staying on God's schedule.
God's schedule for your life and mine is based on. His priorities and. His timing.
Somebody says, well, what's God's priorities? Well, I don't know all of them for your life, but I do know this one. God's priority in your life is simply this, to grow us into an intimate relationship with.
Him. That's number one. It doesn't make any difference how much you serve.
Him, how much you give to. Him, how much you talk about. Him.
The most important thing to. Him is our personal intimate relationship with. Him.
Therefore, He's going to govern and guide your schedule and mine, our timing in different aspects of our life so that you and I will grow in that relationship. So sometimes that means. He'll do things we don't like, many things we don't understand.
Sometimes there'll be pain and suffering and heartache and disappointment and discouragement and rejection. Other times there'll be this awesome pleasure, indescribable pleasure and goodness and mercy and kindness of God that is so evident. God is at work in your life and my life all the time.
And the truth is, you can't think of a single moment in your life and no activity in which God's not involved. He may not be in approval, but God has a schedule for your life and mine. And listen to this carefully.
You may not be on. His schedule all of your life. You may live in rebellion and disobedience to God all of your life.
And you may say, I'm not interested in God's schedule or. His timing. Listen carefully.
There will be a moment in your life in which you will be on. His schedule. It'll be.
His perfect timing. Because here's what God says, It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. You and I have an appointment with God.
No doctor's going to delay it. No wealth can keep you from being on schedule. Nobody.
They put all kind of blood in you, give you all kind of antibiotics, pump you up, operate on you. You cannot extend your life one second. You cannot extend your own God's schedule for death.
So why not get on. His schedule now and enjoy it, amen? Well, I live your whole life and get on.
His schedule at the last second of your life. You could have been on it the whole time enjoying God's best for your life. That's amazing to me how people can ignore God's schedule and.
His timing. They can ignore that. Things fall apart.
They do not work. Needs are not met, whatever it might be. And somehow, they never relate that to the will of God, the plan of God, the purpose of God.
God has a purpose and a plan in every one of our lives, and. He's working something. He is at work in your life and my life.
And what does. He do? He works in every single aspect of our life to teach us what our intimate relationship is.
He works through our children. He works through your finances. He works through your health.
He works in your occupation. All of those things, God is at work at. But why is it?
Why is it that we find ourselves having to suffer consequences that really aren't absolutely necessary? So, when I think about that, I think about one of those consequences is we suffer. Sometimes we suffer physically.
Sometimes it's financially. Sometimes it's in relationships. Sometimes it's in your vocation.
There are many different ways we suffer as a result of ignoring God's schedule. And I go back to say again, if God created you with a purpose and a plan which. He has, then.
He has a schedule. He has timing. And what.
He desires is that you and I would surrender our schedule, put our clock on the shelf, watch. His clock, walk in. His way, and watch.
Him work. Because God is at work in your life every single day in some aspect of it. And when I think about how good God is, oftentimes I wonder how in the world can a person just absolutely ignore the fact that God is at work in their life.
So, sometimes there is great pain, heartache, sorrow, people living with deep regrets in their life because they absolutely have failed to follow. His will. We think time is not important.
Time is very important. God is up to something good all the time. He's never up to something bad in their life.
Look, for example, look past Isaiah and Jeremiah to Lamentations. Look at this verse, Lamentations chapter three. All right, look at this, verse twenty-two.
The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease. Do you get that? They never cease.
For His compassions never fail. Hallelujah, amen? Listen to this, they're new every morning.
Now, some people need to read this every morning. They get up feeling like, I don't have the energy, I can't make it, God, mm-hmm. Look at that.
He says, they're new every morning. Grade is your faithfulness. Remember this, God's compassion and.
His loving kindnesses never run out. Can't exhaust them. Always available.
And so, He says, they're new every morning. The Lord is my portion, verse twenty-four says, my soul, therefore I have hope in. Him.
Watch this, the Lord is good to those who wait for.
Him.
To the person who seeks. Him, it's good that. He waits silently.
You say, well, but let me tell you about my circumstances. Let me tell you the truth. It doesn't make any difference what your circumstances are.
God is still good to every single one of us. The reason. He may not appear to be good to you is because you're off.
His timing and. His schedule. You're doing your own thing.
You have chosen to have it your way instead of God's way. And so, therefore, you want to accuse God and blame God for something when. He had the best plan possible.
Remember, He's all-knowing. He knows the best plan. He knows the right time.
He knows the right schedule. And if you choose to get out of. His will, do it your way, your timing, on your schedule, then listen, one of the very inevitable things that happens when you and I get on our schedule, our timing, we begin to manipulate circumstances, then all of a sudden, instead of confusion, it's not working out right, this isn't working out, and why I feel this, he, she feels that.
And what happens? You're out of. His schedule.
When you are not on God's schedule, you miss. His best. Here's what He says.
He says, He stored up, He says, He stored up goodness for us. And whether we receive it or not depends upon us. So, when I think about what happens to people who miss it, they miss it, and they miss God's best.
Well, okay, so what are the benefits? What happens when you and I say, watch this, when you and I are willing to say, Lord, I'm just giving my schedule to you. I want to be on your time.
And I have to do that personally real, real often. Lord, I know, I see how much is on the schedule for the day. Some things I can control and some things I can't always control.
Here's the schedule. It looks like it's just going to be from one thing to the other all day long. But God, if this is.
Your schedule and I have peace about it, it looks like it's going to be a little tough. But if I have peace, if I know this is. Your schedule, I'll be up to it.
Don't get to manipulate in something. Watch this. Don't try to manipulate the schedule because you feel inadequate.
Because you see, you're not to live and work in your strength anyway. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to come to that in a second.
It's the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, we don't manipulate, don't you? First of all, you can't manipulate God.
Think about this. When I think about people saying, Well, all right, I want God to move on. I've waited long enough.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to fast and pray. Well, you can fast and pray. What that really means to them is, listen, if I pray long enough, God's going to get faster.
That is, He's going to be the one who gets faster, and I'm going to get what I want. And I can remember the first time it ever dawned on me. I'm sure it was earlier in the ministry when I was really, what, fasting and praying for something that was of great importance to me.
And it suddenly dawned on me while I'm done crying out to God, I'm thinking, wait a minute, I can't make God do this. Just relax. I can't make God do this.
And you know, none of us like to be out of control, do we? We always like to, you can tie both my hands behind me, but if I can still wiggle something, at least I'm not totally out of control. When you surrender, your will, your purpose, your plans, your calendar, when you surrender it to.
Him, it's amazing what. He does, but you have to surrender. We don't like it.
We don't like not being in control, but you cannot be in control and have a calendar in your life, which God sees and only. He sees, where you are manipulating things so you get what you want when you want it. But God is a good God, and.
He wants to bless us with. His very best. And so, when I think about all the benefits, just thinking about.
His goodness, we'll turn to the fortieth chapter. Go back to the fortieth chapter of Isaiah. So, look at this passage, if you will.
Fortieth chapter and verse twenty-eight. I'll write it. It's a wonderful chapter of Isaiah.
Verse twenty-eight says, Do you not know and have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator, the end of the earth, does not become weary or tired? Think about that. God never gets tired.
Well, we'll have to wait a while before we can say that. We never get tired. We never get tired.
Listen, His understanding is inscrutable. Man, you can't fathom. His understanding.
He has it perfect. He gives strength to the weary. To him who lacks might, he increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not get tired, and walk and not become weary. There's this awesome promise that when you and I are on. His schedule, He will give us the energy and the strength to do what we need to do.
Now, on one occasion, I was in New Zealand and the pastor there wanted me to speak downtown to this sort of a business people's kind of thing. It wasn't just men. And so, before we left in the morning, somebody forgot to tell me that I was going to speak eight times.
I said, Well, now, you mean eight times this morning? He said, Yes, we start, we start about eight thirty or something like that. And it was a thirty-minute thing, and I'd speak about twenty-some minutes, and I had a few minutes, and I'd come back and start again.
And I remember this passage and I read this passage of Scripture. I read it to myself and I said, God, here's what. You promised.
Those who wait for. You will gain new strength, man of the wings like eagles, run not get tired, walk and not weary. And I said, Lord, I'm already a little bit tired.
So, what I did is I put the Bible under my head and lay down on that concrete floor wrapped up in my overcoat. And I said, Lord, I'm waiting on.
You.
You said, if I wait upon. You, what I'm waiting for, Lord, is. Your strength and.
Your energy and. Your might and. Your power and.
Your anointing because I can't do this in my own strength. I can't do this in my own strength. I'm waiting for.
You to help me. I preached all eight times. When I finished eight times, I wasn't even tired, not even tired.
God supplies what we need. He says, they that wait upon. Him.
And this Scripture is in here for a very practical reason. There are times what is required of us will wear us out if we don't listen to.
Him.
We listen to. Him and what happens? God gives us the strength and the energy.
When we don't, we get laid out. And I can remember back in the ministry when we had three television programs every week and two of them were live and I was doing everything else that a pastor does. And so finally, you know, that verse didn't work.
The reason it didn't work was I was not on God's schedule, not in. His time, and I was doing my own thing. Now, I would have told you, it's for Jesus' sake.
That's sort of what I felt, but I was deceived, deceived myself, think I had to do all these things. So, for a while I was tired on Monday. Most of the time, a little bit tired on Monday.
And in fact, I tell folks, don't ask me to make any decisions from two to five on Monday, because after that I'm fine. Before that, or during that time, I'm a little bit hazy. So that's, I don't make any important decisions.
Monday I was tired, Tuesday I was tired, and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I felt just like it was Monday. Fine, I was laid out for three months. Just out.
I was off of God's schedule. I was out of. His timing.
I was trying to do more than God expected me to do. And so what happened, He just laid me out for three months. You say, Well, did you learn anything?
Yes, I did. First of all, that I wasn't Superman. And there was a difference between God's timing and.
His schedule in mine. And third, I learned something else very humbling. I came back after three months.
They'd had twelve different preachers in three months. Tendence was up, money was up, everything was better. That taught me a lesson, that I am not indispensable by a long shot.
And secondly, if you walk in God's schedule, you don't get in that kind of a mess physically. You don't get in that kind of a mess.
Listen to what he says. He says, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles.
They will run and not get tired, and they will walk and not become weary. Have you ever seen an eagle fly? You see, you think they're up there batting their wings.
They're not doing that. They couldn't fly very far. They just bat their wings.
They just find the right air current. And those currents just hold up their wings. That's why they just soar along and nothing ever happens.
They can fly over it, and it's amazing how absolutely awesomely smart they are. Now think about this. Here is an eagle who sees this fish from that distance and has the accuracy to know how fast to fly, how low to fly.
And he's already figured out how big that fish is because if he put those talons in a big fish, he can't get it out. He can't do that. Once he clutches that fish, the fish is either going to take him under or he takes the fish.
He calculates all of that. Flies right out of there and he's gone. Got what he's after.
He's a success. Makes proper judgments. He can see so accurately.
That little old eye isn't as big as my little finger. And I happen to have gotten a great shot of that. And when you look at his eye, he's got this, if you look at it, because I got him sideways, it's this very determined look.
Don't even look like you're going to come get this fish. I mean, it's an awesome, awesome picture. It says something about the strength and the accuracy.
Then he can, now look can he pick the fish up out of the water? He can soar so high. And so, I come to this verse of the Scripture and I read this, he says, You mount up with wings like an eagle, run and not get tired, walk and not become weary.
I think the reason a lot of people are weary in whatever they're doing in life is because they're doing it in their own strength, in their own puny wisdom. You want to do it their way, not in the ways of God. And I want to encourage you, there are a lot of benefits, many benefits, for getting in.
His schedule and. His timing. Saves you from a lot of heartache, a lot of mistakes, a lot of burdens, a lot of embarrassment, a lot of failure.
And I want to challenge you to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you for living a rebellious life, because watch this. There are four very definite requirements to get in. His schedule and on.
His timing. And the first one is humility. God, I'm not sufficient adequate than myself.
I need. You, Lord. Secondly is faith.
I'm going to trust. You that. You know better than I do.
I'm going to trust. You, God, that. You know better than I do.
And sometimes that's hard for us to face. Thirdly, it requires patience. I'm going to wait for God's timing no matter what.
And the fourth requirement is courage, the courage to wait until God says, Yes, this is. My will. And I want to encourage you, whoever you are, to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins.
And here's what you need to do. You say to. Him, Lord, I know I've sinned against.
You, been living on my schedule all these years. I'm asking. You to forgive me of my sin based on the death of Jesus at the cross, who shed.
His blood, paid my sin debt in full, and made it possible for me to ask. You for mercy and forgiveness of my sin. I'm trusting Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.
The moment you do that, He sets you right in the middle of. His schedule for your life, and then the Holy Spirit will be willing to give you guidance and direction all the years of your life. Father, how grateful we are.
You just love us so much, it's hard for us to figure sometime how you can. But You said. You'd stored up goodness for us, faithful every morning, loving kindness, tender mercy, everything that.
You have prepared for us. And that even in the difficult times, all those things are still true. We ask the Holy Spirit to speak to every single listener that you could accomplish your purpose and plan for their life, for their good in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to God's Schedule. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.